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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




JOSEPH ADDISON. 



C?catl)'$ dfrtglist) Claries 



MACAULAY'S 



ESSAY ON ADDISON 



EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, ETC. 
BY 

ALBERT PERRY WALKER, M.A. 

MASTER, AND TEACHER OF ENGLISH AND HISTORY, IN THE 
ENGLISH HIGH SCHOOL, BOSTON 



BOSTON, U.S.A. 

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 

1900 



45425 




SEP 10 1900 

J./0/?<H>\ 

StCOKO COPY. 

OROE« WVtSlOK. 
SEP 




800S8 



Copyright, 1900 
By D. C. Heath & Co. 



Pkesswork by 
S. J. Parkhili. & Co., Boston, U.S.A. 



PREFACE. 



UNLIKE some of Macaulay's earlier productions, the Essay on Addi- 
son is notably simple in structure and in expression. In it Macaulay 
allows himself few digressions from the main theme, and he refrains 
from setting forth brilliant and startling paradoxes in order to exhibit 
his ingenuity and eloquence in defending them, as he does in the Essay 
on Milton. In studying this essay, therefore, the efforts of the pupil 
should be directed primarily toward mastering the subject matter; that 
is, toward acquiring a knowledge of the careers of the most noted men 
of letters in the Augustan Age of English Literature. With the names 
of Addison and Steele, Pope and Swift, should be associated in his 
mind conceptions of the personalities, the social relations, and the 
characteristic literary productions of these authors; and this result may 
best be achieved by devoting as much time as possible to reading in 
class selections from their works, and applying to them Macaulay's 
critical judgments. 

In accordance with the plan pursued in other volumes of the series, 
the Editor has gathered the historical facts necessary to the elucidation 
of the text into an introductory sketch, to be studied before the reading 
of the essay is begun, and has relegated all matters of miscellaneous 
information to an Explanatory Index at the end of the book, where 
readers who fail to understand any given allusion of Macaulay may 
find, not merely some facts relative to the matter referred to, but those 
specific facts which make clear the bearing of the allusion upon Mac- 
aulay's main topic. Throughout the text the symbol ° indicates that 
the word or phrase preceding is to be found in the Explanatory Index. 

It has not been thought necessary to repeat in this volume the sug- 
gestions for the study of the Essay as a typical literary form which are 
incorporated in the volume of this series containing the Essay on 
Milton. For such suggestions, and also for a more extended account 
of English history in the period immediately preceding the Revolution 
of 1688, the pupil is referred to that volume. 



iv PREFACE. 

The text employed in this edition is the revised text prepared by 
Macaulay for the first collected edition of his essays. The original 
punctuation and capitalization have been carefully retained, and the 
pupil may with profit be led to institute a comparison between the 
elaborate and purely formal punctuation in use in England a half- 
century ago and the rational system now employed, especially in this 
country. 

A. P. W. 

Boston, May, 1900. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface iii 

Introduction vi 

Macaulay's Life (Outline) vi 

Macaulay's Ideals and his Achievements ix 

Historical Introduction (A Sketch of the British Consti- 
tution, and of Events before and after the Revolution 

of 1688) xiii 

Chronological Table of Addison's Life and Contemporary 

Events xxix 

Bibliography (Macaulay and Addison) .... xxx 

THE ESSAY ON ADDISON ...... 1 

Notes — Illustrative and Explanatory 113 

Questions for Review „ 121 

Explanatory Index .126 



BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE OF MACAULAY'S LIFE AS 
RELATED TO HIS PRINCIPAL LITERARY WORK.. 

1800 He was born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, England. 

25 Oct. His father was a Presbyterian clergyman, his mother a 
Quaker. In early childhood he was an insatiable reader. 
After the year 

1 81 2 He began his formal education by attending a private 
academy. 

1818 He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he won dis- 
tinction for brilliant work in all studies except mathe- 
matics. He was associated with the college for more 
than seven years (Craven University Scholar, 1821; B.A., 
1822; Fellow, 1824). (Contributions to KnighVs Quar- 
terly Magazine, 1822; Essay on Milton, 1825.) Having 
determined to pursue the profession of law, in 

1826 He was called to the bar, but devoted much of his time to 
literature, as his Essay on Milton, contributed to the 
Edinburgh Review, had gained him instant popularity. 
To that magazine he contributed regularly for several 
years. (Essays on Afacliiavelli, 1827; Dryden, January, 
1828; History, May, 1828; Ha Ham's History, September, 
1828, etc.) 

1830 He entered Parliament as a Whig member for Calne, on the 
nomination of Lord Lansdowne. He immediately became 
an ardent advocate of political reforms, and added to his 
reputation as a writer that of an orator. His literary 
activity was not diminished by his new duties (Essays on 
Bunyan, December, 1830; Byron, June, 183 1; Johnson, 
September, 1831; Mirabeau, July, 1832; Walpole, Octo- 
ber, 1833, etc.), while his political services to the cause of 
vi 



BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. vii 

reform won him the suffrages of the city of Leeds in the 
elections of 1832, and the gratitude of the Whig leaders. 

1833 He was made Secretary of the Board of Control. In the 

same year his speech on a Bill for the Government of 
India proved his exhaustive acquaintance with the condi- 
tions and needs of that country. Accordingly he was 
appointed a member of the Supreme Council of India and 
its legal adviser, at a salary of ,£10,000 a year. 

1834 He went to India in this capacity, and devoted his powers to 

solving administrative problems and to formulating a Code 
of Laws for India, his literary gifts meanwhile finding but 
little expression. {Essays on Mackintosh 's History, 1835; 
Bacon, 1837.) Having saved from his ample income a 
sum sufficient to relieve him from anxiety for the future, in 

1838 He returned to England, and was soon elected to Parlia- 

ment as a member for Edinburgh. 

1839 He became Secretary of War in the ministry of Lord Mel- 

bourne. On the accession to power of the Tories in 
1 841 He became an active member of the Opposition to Peel. 
He resumed his frequent contributions to the Edinburgh 
Review. {Essays on Clive, 1840; Leigh Hunt, Lord 
Hollatid, Hastings, 1841 ; Frederick the Great, 1842 ; 
Madame UArblay, Addison, 1843, etc Meanwhile he 
tempted fortune in a new line of literary activity (Lays of 
Ancient Rome, 1842), and also prepared the first collected 
edition of his Essays (1843). 
1846 He became Paymaster of the Forces in the new Whig 
ministry of Russell. In the election of the succeeding year, 
he was rejected by the voters of Edinburgh because of his 
independent attitude on religious and other questions. 
This defeat left him free to prosecute the work which he 
had long designed to make the crowning literary produc- 
tion of his life, the History of England from the Accession 
of James L. (Vols. I. and II., 1848). 
1852 He was reelected Member of Parliament for Edinburgh with- 
out any canvass on his own behalf, but resigned his seat 
four j ears later, as the completion of his History was still 



viii MACAULAY. 

his foremost consideration (Vols. III. and IV., 1855), and 
his failing health warned him that he must set a limit 
to his activities. In recognition of his services to the state 
in so many fields of labor, in 
1857 He was elevated to the peerage as "Baron Macaulay of 
Rothley." Besides his labors upon the History, he now 
found time to contribute to the Encyclopedia Britannica 
a series of biographies of eminent men {After bury, 1853; 
Bunyan, 1854; Goldsmith, Johnson, 1856; William Pitt, 
1859). His health, although failing, gave no serious 
cause of alarm until in 
1859 He died of disease of the heart, and was buried in the 
Dec. 28 " Poet's Corner " in Westminster Abbey, at the foot of the 
monument to Addison. 



MACAULAY'S LITERARY IDEALS, DEDUCED FROM HIS 
CRITICAL WRITINGS, AND CRITICAL ESTIMATES 
OF HIS ACHIEVEMENTS. 

General Type of Work. — It may be laid down as a general 
rule . . . that history begins in novel and ends in essay. ... By 
judicious selection, rejection, and rearrangement, (the historian) 
gives to truth those attractions which have been usurped by hction. 
(Macaulay, Essay on History?) 

The historical essay, as he conceived it, was as good as 
unknown before him. To take a bright period or personage 
of history, ... to conceive it at once in article size, and then 
to fill in this limited canvas with sparkling anecdote, telling 
bits of color, and facts all fused together, by a real genius 
for narrative, was the sort of genre painting which Macaulay 
applied to history. (J. C. Morrison.) Narrative was his 
peculiar forte. (H. J. Nicoll.) 

Restrained Imagination, Truth. — A perfect historian must 
possess an imagination sufficiently powerful to make his narrative 
affecting and picturesque. Yet he must control it so absolutely as 
to content himself with the materials which he finds, and to refrain 
from supplying deficiencies by additions of his own. . . . He must 
possess sufficient self-command to abstain from casting his facts in 
the mould of his hypothesis. He never advances a false opinion 
because it is new or splendid, because he can clothe it in a happy 
phrase, or defend it by an ingenious sophism. (Macaulay, Essay 
on History?) 

He is substantially right in his judgments. (Frederic 
Harrison.) His intellect, bright and broad as it was, was 
ix 



x ADDISON. 

the instrument of his individuality. His sympathies and 
antipathies colored his statements, and he rarely exhibited 
anything in a dry light. (E. P. Whipple.) Macaulay's hardy 
and habitual recourse to strenuous superlative is fundamen- 
tally unscientific and untrue. (J. Morley). In seeking for 
paradoxes, Macaulay often stumbles on, but more frequently 
stumbles over, truth. (G. Gilfillan.) 

Proportion. — History has its foreground and its background : 
and it is principally in the management of its perspective that one 
artist differs from another. Some events must be represented on a 
large scale, others diminished; the great majority will be lost in the 
dimness of the horizon; and a general idea of their joint effect will 
be given by a few slight touches. (Macaulay, Essay on History.} 
Each of his Essays is a unit. The results of analysis are 
diffused through the veins of narration, and details are strictly 
subordinated to leading conceptions. (E. P. Whipple.) He 
is not a genuine artist; when he draws a picture he is 
always thinking of proving something; he inserts disserta- 
tions in the most interesting and touching places. (H. A. 
Taine".) 

Clearness. —The first law of writing, that law to which all other 
laws are subordinate, is this, that the words employed shall be such 
as convey to the reader the meaning of the writer. . . . The style 
(of Bunyan) is delightful to every reader. The vocabulary is the 
vocabulary of the common people. There is not an expression, if 
we except a few technical terms of theology, which would puzzle 
the rudest peasant. Yet no writer has said more exactly what he 
meant to say. (Macaulay, Life of Bunyan ) 

It is largely due to his influence that the best journals and 
periodicals of our day are written in a style so clear, so 
direct, so resonant. (Frederic Harrison.) Nobody can have 
any excuse for not knowing exactly what it is that Macaulay 
means. (He) never wrote an obscure sentence in his life. 
(J. Morley.) The wonderful clearness, point, and vigor of 
his style send his thoughts right into every brain. (W. Bage- 



ADDISON. xi 

hot.) Nobody ever wrote more clearly than Macaulay. 
(Leslie Stephen.) 

Vigor. — His (Goldsmith's) style was always pure and easy, and, 
on proper occasions, pointed and energetic. His narratives were 
always amusing, his descriptions always picturesque. (Macaulay, 
Life of Goldsmith.} 

Common historical events he narrates with all the brilliancy 
of epigram. (W. Bagehot.) By clothing his historical judg- 
ments and his critical reflections in these cutting and sonorous 
periods, he has forced them on the attention of a vast body 
of readers wherever English is read at all, and on millions 
who have neither time nor attainments for any regular 
studies of their own. (Frederic Harrison.) 

Condensation. — The style (of Dante) is, if not his highest, 
perhaps his most peculiar excellence. His words are the fewest 
and the best which it is possible to use. The first expression in 
which he clothes his thoughts is always so energetic and compre- 
hensive that amplification would only injure the effect. (Macaulay, 
Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers?) 

He delights to cram tomes of diluted facts into one short, 
sharp, antithetical sentence, and to condense general prin- 
ciples into epigrams. (E. P. Whipple.) 

Structure. — Dryden's arguments are often worthless. But the 
manner in which they are stated is beyond all praise. The style is 
transparent. The topics follow each other in the happiest order. 
The objections are drawn up in such a manner that the whole fire 
of the reply may be brought to bear upon them. (Macaulay, Essay 
on Dry den.} 

Occasionally he uses the long oratorical, climactic period. 
In every paragraph we are conscious of being led on to a 
crowning demonstration. He is careful to reserve the most 
telling for the end, and artfully prepares the way for a final 
resolution. (Minto.) His Essays are not merely the best of 
their kind in existence, but they are put together with so 



xii ADDISON. 

much skill that they are permanent types of a certain species 
ofliterary architecture. (Edmund Gosse.) 

Ornament. — The illustrations at once adorn and eluci- 
date the reasoning. His powers of brilliant illustration 
have never been denied, and it would not be easy to name 
their equal. (J. C. Morrison.) 

Use of Detail. — The perfect historian is he in whose work the 
character and spirit of an age is exhibited in miniature. He con- 
siders no anecdote, no peculiarity of manner, no familiar saying, as 
too insignificant to illustrate the operation of laws, of religion, and 
of education, and to mark the progress of the human mind. Men 
will not merely be described, but will be made intimately known to 
us. (Macaulay, Essay on History.') 

He excelled all Englishmen of his time in his knowledge 
of English history. There was no drudgery he would not 
endure in order to obtain the most trivial fact which illus- 
trated the opinions or the manners of any particular age, 
and this information was not a mere assemblage of dead 
facts. It was vitalized by his passions and imagination. 
(E. P. Whipple.) 

MACAULAY'S JUDGMENT OF HIS OWN WORK. 

" The author of these Essays is so sensible of their defects 
that he has repeatedly refused to let them appear in a form 
which might seem to indicate that he thought them worthy 
Of a permanent place in English literature; nor would he 
now give his consent to the republication of pieces so 
imperfect, if, by withholding his consent, he could make 
republication impossible. . . . The criticism on Milton, 
which was written when the author was fresh from college, 
and which contains scarcely a paragraph such as his matured 
judgment approves, still remains overloaded with gaudy and 
ungraceful ornament." — (Preface to the first collected edition 
of his Essays, 1849.) 



SKETCH OF ENGLISH HISTORY AFTER 1603. 



1. The English Government. 

Elizabeth, the last of the Tudor monarchs of England, died in 

1603. The fabric of government which she bequeathed to her 

successors, the Stuart monarchs, was essentially feudal in 

form. The principle of heredity governed the descent of 

. . . . . govern- 

the crown, and the nation was divided into three social ment 

classes, on lines determined by feudal conditions : the nobil- 
ity (or peerage), the lesser aristocracy (or knighthood), and the 
commons. 

The nobility consists of peers created by the sovereign, or the 
lineal descendants of peers so created. At that time, on raising a 

commoner to the peerage, the monarch generally bestowed 

Peers, 
upon him a landed estate from which he might draw a rev- 
enue to support his new dignity, and conferred upon him a title 
either drawn from the estate or commemorating the achievement 
which had won for him the honor of ennoblement. There were 
five grades or orders of nobility, baron, viscount, earl, marquis, 
and duke, — represented in our own study by John Somers, Baron 
Somers; Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke; Sidney Godol- 
phin, Earl of Godolphin; Thomas Wharton, Marquis of Wharton; 
and John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. Perhaps the most 
important advantage of nobility lay in the fact that every peer was 
an hereditary legislator in his own right, having a claim to be sum- 
moned by the monarch to every successive national legislative 
assembly, or " Parliament," where the peers by themselves formed 
an "upper house." 

The lesser aristocracy consisted of those persons whom the mon- 
arch had raised above the rank of commoners by conferring upon 
them the order of knighthood. In early times, all persons 
who possessed a certain amount of land were raised to that Knl § nts « 



xiv ADDISON. 

dignity, and only persons of this rank were eligible to represent 
the several counties in the lower House of Parliament. County 
representatives were therefore called " Knights of the Shire." In 
later days the distinction was conferred upon artists, learned men, 
and public benefactors in any line of activity. In our study, ex- 
amples are Sir Joshua Reynolds (for distinguished skill in paint- 
ing) ; Sir Richard Steele (for political services). 

The legislative power resided in Parliament, the upper house of 

which contained all hereditary nobles (" Lords Temporal ") and all 

archbishops and bishops of the, national church (" Lords 

Parlia- Spiritual "), while the lower house contained representatives 

from each county (" Knights of the Shire ") and from each 

lesser political unit or borough ("burgesses"). 

The executive work of the government was entrusted by the mon- 
arch to officials appointed by him on the ground of their ability, or 
of their subservience to his wishes, or too often of their per- 

The king s sona i acceptability alone. Of these officers the following 
ministers. c ... 

are of especial importance : — 

1. The Lord High Treasurer, who was generally acknowledged 
to be the chief officer of the Crown, or Prime Minister. 

2. The Secretaries of State, who conducted all foreign negotia- 
tions and formulated the general public policy of the State. 

3. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, who shaped the financial 
measures of the government. 

4. The Lord High Chancellor, who presided over the sessions of 
the House of Lords. 

5. The Lord Chief Justice, who presided over the court of high- 
est jurisdiction in the State. 

The Privy Council had been originally a small body of the most 
eminent nobles, who were summoned by the monarch to give him 
special advice upon matters of State policy. Included in it 
The Privy were the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Lord Chief Jus- 
Council. t . ce ^ the Loj . d Treasurerj the two Archbishops of the State 
Church (see p. xv), the Lord Steward, the Lord Chamberlain, the 
Earl Marshal, etc. Thus it contained elements from the depart- 
ments of Einance, Justice, etc., and a permanent group of high 
executive officers, mostly appointive, but some {e.g. Archbishops) 



ADDISON. xv 

members by virtue of their office. It modified the king's arbitrary- 
power by refusing the seal (see Index) to royal orders of which it 
disapproved, but as its members were almost all subject to removal 
from their offices, it presented no insurmountable obstacle to the 
king's will. 

The Privy Council had risen to great importance under the 
Tudors, first by gaining control of certain territory, and later by 
assuming the right to issue proclamations, to create courts, 
and to exercise judicial powers in cases of supreme impor- ° vveis 
tance in the State. 1 Thus the Stuart monarchs found in the r; ounc {i 
Privy Council a strong weapon of tyranny when it was sub- 
servient to the Crown, and a powerful barrier to tyranny when 
it was ranged in defence of the established rights of the nation. 

Among the political changes which had been brought about dur- 
ing the reign of the Tudors had been a revolt from the government 
of the Church of Rome, resulting in the establishment of a 
new ecclesiastical organization (the Church of England) as State 

a department of the State. Parliament had enacted laws to 
the effect ( i ) that the creed of this Church should consist of " thirty- 
nine articles" (or statements of religious dogma), then first formu- 
lated; (2) that its supreme government should reside in the 
monarch, as chief executive; (3) that its worship should conform 
to a prescribed ritual, then first composed; (4) that its member- 
ship should include all the citizens of the State; and (5") that its 
property and revenues should be administered through the 
agency of the State. Adherence to this Church and conform- * ° ^ni- 
ity with its practice had been made universally compulsory. 

But this revolt under the Tudors had been merely one expression 
of a general spirit of independence that prevailed throughout the 
nation. Many Englishmen still adhered to the authority 
of the Roman Church, many disagreed with some of the ^ e 
religious theories contained in the Thirty-nine Articles. senters •■ 
Thus there arose a large body of disaffected people, who 
strove in one way or another against the State Church. One body 
(the Puritans) developed within the pale of the Church, through 
the action of clergymen who, while accepting in the main the 

1 While thus engaged it was called the Court of High Commission. 



xvi ADDISON. 

results of the recent revolt, wished to " purify " the doctrines of the 
Church of what they considered to be errors, and to "purify" its 
worship of many rites and practices inherited from the Roman 
Catholic regime. These Puritans, the Catholics, and clivers other 
persons of independent views, constituted a body of rebels against 
the authority of the State in religious matters; thus a group of sects 
("Dissenters") appears in England, suffering greatly from the 
persecutions of State officials, but recruiting their numbers steadily, 
especially from the ranks of the commoners. 

2. The Early Stuart Monarchs, 1603-1649. 

The reign of the Tudors in England having come to an end by 

the death of Elizabeth, the " Virgin Queen," last of the direct line, the 

succession devolved upon James Stuart (James I. of Eng- 

James I. land), the great-grandson of her father's sister Margaret, 

who had married the king of Scotland. Thus, between 

160; and 1707, the same monarchs reigned over the king- 
union of J ' ' 
England doms of England and of Scotland, although the kingdoms 

and were wholly distinct, each being governed according to its 

Scotland. own fundamental constitution through its own Parliament. 

A peculiarity of the early Stuart monarchs of England was their 
adherence to the doctrine of "the divine right of kings." This 
doctrine, in brief, was that an hereditary monarchy is a 
. , V ,! ne f divinely instituted form of government; that a monarch is, 
, • therefore, responsible to God alone for the way in which he 

governs his realm; and that, while he should aim to rule 
solely for the good of his subjects, they have no right to bid defi- 
ance to his edicts or to reject him when his government becomes 
obnoxious to them. 

Very early in his reign James showed his arbitrary temper by his 

determination, in spite of strong popular disapproval, to enforce the 

Act of Uniformity upon all Puritans and Catholics. To his 

yranny o dogged insistence upon the theory of divine right the see- 
the Stuarts. ° r .r- 

ond Stuart monarch, Charles I., ultimately saenhced his 

life, for he quarrelled continuously with his Parliament in re- 
gard to the revenues and expenditures of the nation. And his 



ADDISON. xvii 

repeated acts of tyranny finally provoked a civil war, which 
resulted in the defeat and execution of the king, in January, 1649. 
There followed eleven years of Puritan rule, in which Oliver 
Cromwell exerted a dominating influence; but his death was fol- 
lowed by the restoration of the Stuarts in the person of Charles II., 
son of the former monarch. His reign was marked by a fresh 
struggle between king and Parliament, for supremacy in the gov- 
ernment and for the control of religion within the kingdom, and it 
was only by making repeated concessions to popular feeling that 
Charles retained the throne until his death in 1685. 

The religious excitement continued unabated during the reign of 
James II. Indeed, the king's open adherence to Catholicism, and 
his uncompromising obstinacy, made him more unacceptable 
to Parliament than his brother had been. In illustration of James II. 
this may be cited his treatment of Oxford and Cambridge. a Mag- 
The Universities (see Index) being the nurseries of the .-, ., 
State church (see p. xv), James proceeded to remove the 
leading officials in the colleges from their positions, and to replace 
them with Catholics. On the death of the president of Magdalene 
College, Oxford, the king outraged public sentiment by ordering 
the Fellows to elect to the presidency a Catholic, Anthony Farmer, 
a man of notoriously bad character. On their refusal, he created a 
special commission, which visited the college and expelled all the 
Fellows (and later all the Demies, or scholars) for their contumacy. 
As Farmer's unfitness for the presidency had been clearly demon- 
strated, the commission raised a churchman, the Bishop of Oxford, 
to the position; but, on his early death, James again appointed a 
Roman Catholic to the office. 

Matters reached a climax in 1688, three years after James's 

accession to the throne. He attempted by an edict to abrogate 

laws against Catholicism which had been passed to secure „ , A . 

l Revolution 

beyond all question the dominance of the Protestant reli- f l688> 

gion. This edict, illegal in itself, was made more obnoxious 

to the clergy by an order directing them to read it in their " Declara- 

several churches on a certain date. Thus they were com- T ., . 

' Liberty of 

pelled, as it seemed to them, to share in the overthrow of Q on . 

their own church. Seven of the bishops of the State Church science." 



xviii ADDISON. 

ventured to petition the king not to enforce his order, and he, in 

a passion at this questioning of the royal prerogative, threw them 

into prison. The courts did not sustain him in his tyranny, 

ria o le ^ pu j D jj c sen timent was so outraged by his act that a group 

bishops. r r .. , , . , , 

of seven ministers and statesmen determined to put an end 

to the struggle with the Stuarts by inviting the husband of James's 
elder daughter (who was Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic) to 
interfere for the protection of the liberties of England. This man, 
William, Prince of Orange, landed in the west of England with a 
military expedition on November 5, 1688, and marched upon Lon- 
don, meeting with only a formal and faint-hearted resistance from 
the people, who were alienated from James by repeated acts of 
tyranny. James fled to France, and William, since he could not 
legally summon a Parliament, issued writs for the election of a 
"Convention." This body declared that by virtue of recent events 
"the throne had thereby become vacant "; and by its authority, in 
February, 1689, the Prince of Orange was crowned as King William 
III., after having given his formal assent to a statement of the 

fundamental principles of the English monarchy, presented 
" Declara- tQ ^j m ^ ^ c onve ntion under the guidance of the body of 
Rights " ministers who had assumed the direction of affairs. These 

statesmen were determined not only to endure no longer the 
tyranny of James Stuart, but also to secure such recognition of the 
fundamental rights which the Stuarts had persistently denied them 
as should leave no ground for further dispute with any monarch. 
The principles enunciated in this statement were afterward incor- 
porated into the series of laws which were enacted by Parliament 
under the name of the " Bill of Rights." The statement itself, 
called the " Declaration of Rights," is, next to " Magna Charta," the 

most important document in English history. The succes- 

S ttlement s ' on to t ^ ie tnrone was now fi xe d by act of Parliament upon 
James's younger daughter, Anne, and her heirs; these fail- 
ing, it was to pass to the descendants of his cousin Sophia, who 
had married the Prince of the German state of Hanover. 



ADDISON. xix 



3. The Later Stuarts, 1688-1714. 

The " Glorious Revolution of 1688 " divides the England of 
Milton from the England of Addison. Before that date English 
history is primarily concerned with local affairs, — the de- 
velopment of enduring institutions (political and religious) . n ^ ai \ R o 
essentially democratic in character, because expressive of the 
will of the nation. Thereafter its scope widens to include the 
interests of Europe and of the world at large. A link between 
these two phases of English history may be perceived in the rela- 
tion of the middle and later English monarchs to Louis XIV., King 
of France from 1643 to 1 715. 

In all the struggles of the English people to establish satisfactory 
relations between themselves and their monarch, the influence of 
Louis had had a large share in shaping the course of events. 
An extreme absolutist, Louis had given a refuge to the family Louls XI v - 
of Charles I. An ardent Catholic, he had bribed Charles II., e. 
after the Restoration, to attempt to restore Catholicism in 
England, paying him enormous subsidies that enabled him to dis- 
miss his Parliaments at will, and to carry on the government without 
grants of money from the recalcitrant Commons. An ambitious 
conqueror, he had bought from Charles the service of English troops 
in his aggressions upon the Flemish and Dutch states upon his 
northern boundary, until the astute Stadtholder of Holland, by dip- 
lomatic arrangements with other countries, had succeeded in mak- 
ing Charles's position in the matter untenable. In the cause of both 
religion and absolutism he had supported James in his tyranny, and 
had received him in his flight and given him the succor due to a 
king, even sending French troops in his service to Ireland, when 
the final attempt of James to recover his lost rights ended in g ovne 
disastrous failure at the battle of the Boyne, where his army 1690. 
was defeated by his supplanter, William III. 

William of Orange was the ablest statesman of his age. While 
merely Stadtholder of the small republic of Holland, he had con- 
centrated all his energies upon the task of thwarting the William 
ambitious designs of Louis XIV., by forming a defensive III. and 
union of the states whose interests were threatened by Louis's Louis XIV. 



xx ADDISON. 

aggressions, and he had succeeded in drawing England into this 
union, for certain specific purposes. Immediately upon his ac- 
cession to the English throne he threw the nation into the War 

of the Palatinate, a struggle to thwart Louis's attempts to seize 
Pa.atinate ^ Q erman s t a tes upon the middle Rhine. In this struggle 
Steen'kirk William took the field in person, and was defeated by the 

French General Luxembourg in the battle of Steenkirk. In 
this war the faithless Victor Amadeus of Savoy first proved his 
instability by his desertion of the cause of the allies a year before 
the end of the war. The struggle proving too exhausting to Louis, 

he consented to the ratification of the Peace of Ryswick in 
. , 1697, by the terms of which Louis agreed to relinquish his 

championship of the claims of the exiled branch of the 
Stuarts, and to recognize William as the legitimate sovereign of 
England. 

Meanwhile the reign of William had witnessed the development 
of a distinctive form of government in England. The divided 

sentiment of the nation in regard to the respective rights of 

the monarch and the people had resulted in the creation of 
parties. . . * r . ... . 

two distinct parties. The Tones, maintaining the doctrine 

of divine right (see p. xvi), and therefore holding the Revolution 
to have been indefensible in law, were weak supporters of William's 
policy, and looked forward with eagerness to the time when circum- 
stances should favor the restoration of the exiled Stuarts. Especially 
active in Jacobite J intrigues were the landed proprietors of the 
country districts, and the extremists among the clergy (the " High 
Church party"). On the other hand, the champions of liberty in 
Church and State, who had risked a traitor's death in summoning 
William to England, were bound from self-interest to support his 
policy, and as this coincided with the interests of the commercial 
classes, the Whig party found its chief support in the cities, and 
among the members of dissenting sects (see p. xv). 

At the beginning of his reign William had followed the tradi- 
tional custom of the English monarchs in appointing as ministers 
able statesmen from both parties ; but in carrying out his policy 

1 Adherents of the Stuart family after the Revolution were called 
"Jacobites," as champions of James (Lat. = Jacobus) III. 



ADDISON. xxi 

(which included an attempt to retain within the State Church 
as many liberal clergymen as possible and an attempt to involve 
England in his far-reaching plans for thwarting the baneful 
influence of France in European politics) he was driven to System of 
rely more and more upon the support of the Whigs, and £ overn ~ 

, , , , r ■ ment b y 

thus through the pressure of circumstances party govern- part j es 
ment {i.e. government through a ministry acting as a unit 
in support of a given line of policy) was inaugurated. The first 
distinctively Whig ministry, formed in 1696, was dominated by 
the so-called " Junto," consisting of Somers, Montague, Russell, and 
Wharton. Its measures included a liberal expenditure of money, — 
the Bank of England being created to furnish loans to the govern- 
ment, — a bill limiting the duration of Parliament to three years, 
and the triumphant conclusion of the Palatinate War. A Tory 
reaction set in in 1701, but this was immediately checked by an act 
of folly on the part of Louis XIV. For when the exiled James II. 
died in France on September 16, 1 701, his son, James Edward, was 
formally recognized by Louis as legitimate king of England, 
in violation of the Treaty of Ryswick (see p. xx). The . f 
public sentiment of the English people, thus outraged, Tames III 
turned loyally to the support of William and his Whig ad- 
visers, but by his death in February, 1702, the task of punishing 
Louis for his folly and of consummating William's political schemes 
devolved upon his successor, Queen Anne. 

The principal feature of these schemes had been measures in- 
tended to prevent the threatened union of the Spanish and French 
monarchies under the sovereignty of Philip of Anjou, 
grandson of Louis XIV. of France, and great-grandson of ^ ar of the 
Philip IV. of Spain. Louis had been for years engaged in „ p % 
aggressive wars, endeavoring to secure increase of territory s i on . 
at the expense of his Spanish, Dutch, and German neighbors. 
At the end of the seventeenth century the king of Spain was child- 
less, and in feeble health, and four states, Austria, France, Bavaria, 
and Savoy, had some ground for hoping to inherit at least a share 
of his vast domains. The statesmanlike William of Orange, hoping 
to forestall a possible European rupture, and especially to avoid the 
union of the vast territory of France and Spain, had secured a 



xxii ADDISON. 

treaty agreement for the partitioning of the Spanish territory among 

the several claimants at Charles's death. Through the intrigues 

of France, however, Charles was induced to bequeath his 

, domains entire to a French prince, Philip of Aniou, and at 

the war. r r J 

Charles's death Louis abjured his treaty agreement and 

announced his intention to support Philip's claims under the will. 
Thus was precipitated the Spanish Succession War, in which 
England, Holland, Austria, and Prussia, under the name of the 
" Grand Alliance," were combined against France, Spain, and 
some minor German states. 

By the death of William III. the burden of carrying on the war 
was laid upon Anne, and she entrusted the conduct of the cam- 
paigns to John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. This 
gifted though unscrupulous man, by a most brilliant series 
of campaigns, carried disaster to the French arms and com- 
pelled Louis XIV. to appeal for a cessation of hostilities under 
the most humiliating conditions. Although these terms were 
afterward modified in favor of France, yet the English succeeded 
in their chief object of preventing the union of France and Spain 
into a single European power, and at the close of the war the 
dismemberment of the Spanish territories was secured by the provi- 
sions of the treaty of peace signed at Utrecht in 1 7 1 3. By this treaty 
Philip of Anjou succeeded to the Spanish throne, but re- 

., nounced for himself and his heirs all claims upon the French 

tni : \\ ar. 

crown ; possessions of Spain in Italy and the Netherlands 
were ceded to the other claimants to secure their withdrawal, Sicily 
passing to the Duke of Savoy, and the territory of Flanders to the 
Archduke of Austria. 

The political sympathies of Anne lay wholly on the side of the 
Tories, but as this party was hostile to the influence of Marlbor- 
ough and to the Spanish Succession War, she was com- 
h W ^ r • pelled, during the most of her reign, to rely upon the body 
cal parties °^ WfcuS advisers bequeathed to her by William. By 1 710, 
however, a change in public sentiment had become clearly 
manifest. The opinion had become prevalent that the war was 
being protracted that Marlborough might retain power and win 
glory for himself. At the same time the determination of the 



ADDISON. xxiii 

Whigs to suppress completely the High Church movement ulti- 
mately crushed the party, for in 1710 a High Church clergyman, 
named Dr. Sacheverell, preached, and subsequently pub- 
lished, two sermons in which he proclaimed that the Church Sacheverell 
r . , r . .... . lmpeach- 

was in danger of a betrayal ot its principles, interests, and ment I7IO 

constitution at the hands of the Whig party, inculcated the 
doctrine of non-resistance to monarchs, and denounced the tolera- 
tion of Dissenters. Godolphin (the Whig leader), who had been 
attacked, urged the impeachment of Sacheverell by the House of 
Commons; the Whigs acquiesced in this course because they saw 
in the conduct of the case an opportunity to enunciate and defend 
before the whole country the Whig doctrine that " Resistance to 
the sovereign is admissible only when he has violated the funda- 
mental law of the country (to the support of which he is pledged 
by the virtual compact implied in his holding the office), but is then 
a duty" Sacheverell was declared guilty by a vote of sixty-nine to 
fifty-two, but popular sympathy had rallied about him as a martyr 
to Whig tyranny. The queen seized the opportunity to place 
Tories in her ministry, and the next election sustained her govern- 
ment by sending a large Tory majority to the lower House. The 
Tory leaders, Harley and St. John, triumphant but insecure, 
now determined to weaken their opponents by a blow at e lor ^ 
Marlborough. He was charged with dishonesty in the 
management of war funds, and dismissed from all his offices, 
although he proved that all his acts could be justified, either by 
precedent or by the direct sanction of the monarch. At the same 
time Harley persuaded the queen to create twelve new Tory peers 
in order to secure a Tory majority in the upper House correspond- 
ing to that in the lower. 

Before the end of the Spanish Succession War the failing health 
of Anne had foreshadowed her early death, and the Tories under 
Bolingbroke, Ormonde, and Harcourt, having little to hope from 
the succession of the Hanoverians (who would owe their throne to 
Whig legislation, see p. xviii), began a series of intrigues for 

making void the Act of Settlement, and seating the Pre- . , 

' & intrigues, 

tender, son of James II., upon the English throne. In this 

scheme Harley evinced but a lukewarm interest, so Bolingbroke, 



xxiv ADDISON. 

taking advantage of the fact that Harley was a Dissenter, forced a 
quarrel over a bill intended to place education entirely in the 
hands of the Church, and forced him out of the Cabinet. Thus the 
control of affairs seemed to lie wholly in the hands of the Jacobite 
conspirators, at the time when a sudden illness (which attacked 
the queen on the day after Harley's fall) made her death hourly 
expected; but meanwhile the Whigs, under the leadership of Gen- 
eral Stanhope, had been not less active than the Tories; and at a 
critical moment their spokesmen, the Dukes of Argyle and Somer- 
set, had pressed upon the Council the desirability of inducing Anne 
to make the Duke of Shrewsbury Lord High Treasurer in Harley's 
place. As Shrewsbury, although he favored the Hanoverian suc- 
cession, had acted with the Tories since 1708, the plotters could 
not protest against his appointment without exposing their 
Death of scheme. After three days of stupor Anne recovered con- 
' nne ' sciousness, and her last act was to entrust Shrewsbury with 

1714 ^he w hi te sta ff °f omce - Immediately upon his appoint- 

ment, Prince George of Hanover was summoned to England, 
troops were collected to ensure his succession, and thus the 
schemes of Bolingbroke were thwarted. In the interim the gov- 
ernment devolved by law upon a Council of Regency, composed of 
eighteen peers (almost all of them Whigs who had been 

Council of a pp i n ted by Sophia of Hanover, in accordance with the 
Regency 

provisions of the Regency Bill of 1705), and seven great 

officers of State, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chamber- 
lain, the Lord Keeper, the Lord High Treasurer, the Lord Presi- 
dent of the Council, the Lord Privy Seal, and the Lord Chief 
fustice of the Queen's Bench. This Council carried on the govern- 
ment until the arrival of King George, in September. 

4. The Hanoverians, 1715 + . 

The accession of the Hanoverians brought fresh disaster to the 

Tories and renewed triumph to their Whig opponents. With the 

older Whigs of the Revolution, Sunderland, Shrewsbury, 

Govern- and Halifax, were associated some younger men of rising 

Geo t reputation, Townshend being made Secretary of State, and 

Walpole a little later becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer 



ADDISON. xxv 

and first Lord of the Treasury (the title of Lord High Treasurer 
now falling into disuse). 

In their anxiety lest the Jacobites should succeed in breaking the 
insecure hold of the Hanoverians on the English throne, the 
Whigs passed several measures designed to secure their position in 
the State as conservers of the new dynasty. Taking advantage of 
the excitement caused by Jacobite uprisings, they secured the 
passage of a bill extending the duration of the existing Par- 
liament from three to seven years, in order to avoid the ^ e P^n- 
. . . . , . . . , . , nial Bill," 

tumults and riots incident to an election in the then excited 

state of public feelings. Thus the Whig ministry became 
assured of a long term of power, but internal dissensions in the 
party soon weakened its strength. A coolness having sprung up 
between the king and the Prince of Wales, Sunderland championed 
the cause of the king (especially in regard to his foreign policy), 
while Townshend and Walpole, inclining to the side of the prince, 
were forced out of office. It was during this reconstruction of the 
ministry, that Addison and his friend Craggs entered the 
ministry as Secretary of State and Secretary of War respec- s 
tively. Fearing that the prince on his accession would f state. 
create a large number of peers from among his own sup- 
porters, the section of the Whigs now in power introduced a bill by 
which the crown was prohibited from creating more than six new 
peerages in addition to the one hundred and seventy-eight 
then existing. The strength of that section of the Whigs R .., „ ° 
that were in opposition is shown by the fact that under the 
leadership of Walpole they were enabled to defeat the bill in the 
House of Commons by a large majority. 

The Townshend Whig ministry was shaken by the collapse of 
the South Sea Bubble. The seeds of this disaster had been sown 
by the Tory, Harley, in a scheme for restoring the national 

credit. Its features in brief were as follows: To a newly _ .I*, 1 ,, 6 

Bubble, 
chartered " South Sea Company " of merchants were given 

exclusive privileges of trading between the South Seas Its 

and England, on condition that they bought all of the ince P tlon « 

floating debts of the government, fifty million dollars, from its 

various creditors (and later all the permanent debt amounting to 



xxvi ADDISON. 

one hundred and fifty million dollars), and carried the whole as a 
loan from the Company to the government at moderate rates of 
interest. This arrangement was very advantageous to the govern- 
ment, while the certainty of a moderate interest on a permanent 
investment made it not disadvantageous to the Company, even if 
the monopoly of trade in the South Seas had not promised to add 
to this normal source of income speculative profits for the stock- 
holders limited only by the imagination of the speculators. Under 
this latter incentive the price of shares of the stock rose 
. fl t - steadily in value, until in nine years they had become worth 

three hundred and thirty per cent of their par value : the 
directors, dazzled by their unexpected success, now used artificial 
means to advance the price, and in five months more had forced it 
to one thousand per cent, when they began to dispose of their 
holdings. A panic ensued ; in one month the stock fell to one 
hundred and seventy five, and in six months the collapse of 
colla ^ e sc ^ eme was complete, to the ruin of innumerable in- 

vestors. As Aislabie, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Stan- 
hope, Secretary of State, Sunderland, the Prime Minister, and 
Cr.aggs had been involved in the dishonest proceedings of the 
Company, their reputations were so smirched in the investigation 
that followed the collapse of the Company that they withdrew from 
office, leaving Walpole and Townshend in complete control of the 
Whig party. 

Using the power of the Lords and the landed Commoners to 

control elections, and that of the Crown to bribe members with 

pensions and offices of emolument, Walpole retained his 

poe ascendency for many years without serious diminution, but 

ocr«pr»_ J J J 

dency at tne cost °f tne friendship of some of the leading lights of 

his party, for his jealous temper would brook no possible 
rival in the ministry. Thus the brilliant Carteret was forced out of 
the secretaryship in 1723. Pulteney too, a former clerk of Wal- 
pole's, was discarded, and revenged himself by lending his aid to 
Eolingbroke, who was making strenuous efforts to reinstate himself 
in English politics. In 1727 Pulteney took charge of the opposi- 
tion periodical, The Craftsman, a paper designed to weaken 
Walpole's influence. In 1730 Townshend, too loyal to join the 



ADDISON. xxvii 

opposition, was forced into obscurity, and in 1733 Lord Chester- 
field was also alienated. This group of leaders, believing them- 
selves to be the true conservers of old Whig principles, 
adopted the appellation of " Patriots," and vigorously at- p . ,, 
tacked the inordinate power of the Crown in the control 
of elections, and the consequent dominance of the legislature. 

This struggle continued throughout the term of Walpole's minis- 
try. The short ministry of the Pelhams followed (1743- 175 7), and 
then ensued the era of the Pitts, of Fox, and of Burke, the 

era when the American and French Revolutions claimed the ^ enocl 0l 

foreign 
attention of English statesmen, and local reforms could get j nterests 

no hearing. It was only after the downfall of Napoleon in 
181 5, that England again turned her attention to the improvement 
of her own political conditions. In the early phases of this reform 
movement Macaulay finds a curious parallel with the political con- 
ditions in 1704 (Essay on Addison, % 50), which may be made 
clear by a brief sketch of conditions existing in 1826. 

In 1826 Canning was Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the Tory 
ministry of Lord Liverpool. This ministry was heir to the Tory 
policy of the previous twenty years, that of an alliance be- 
tween England and the leading European powers to check Wn |§ s antl 
the aggressions of Napoleon Bonaparte. The fruits of this g 6 
alliance had been as follows : First, the Tory party, under 
Lords Castlereagh, Eldon, and Westmoreland, had become identified 
with the policy of cooperation with the greater European powers 
in dominating the lesser states; secondly, the excessive war expen- 
ditures necessitated by this policy had forced upon the Tories a 
financial policy which included large income and property tax and a 
protective tariff on agricultural products. 

Canning and his friends, Robinson, Huskisson, Wellesley, and 
Palmerston, were moderate Tories, who differed from the extreme 
Tories (Liverpool, Eldon, the Duke of Wellington, Peel) in advo- 
cating the policy of holding aloof from entangling alliances with 
European powers, in advocating a modification of the protective 
tariff system, and in promoting legislation designed to lessen the 
disproportionate power of the landed class in the House of Com- 
mons, and to secure the admission to Parliament of Protestant 



xxviii ADDISON. 

Dissenters. In all these matters they were favoring measures 
subsequently passed under Whig ministries. Thus, although 
in 1826 "there was no avowed coalition between them 
Parallelism r^g Whigs] and the moderate Tories [Canning, etc.], all 
xvl 1 . lgS men saw that such a coalition was inevitable; nay, that it 

of 1704 was already half formed."* (See ^[ 50.) Thus, too, " those 

statesmen saw that it was both for the public interest and 
for their own interest to adopt a Whig policy. But if the foreign 
policy of the Whigs were adopted [non-interference in the affairs 
of other states], it was impossible to abstain from adopting their 
financial policy " [economy, liberal policy toward dissenters, legisla- 
tion in the interest of manufactures and commerce]. (See ^[ 49.) 
In 1 828- 1 829 Lord John Russell secured the repeal of certain laws 
against Protestant Dissenters and Catholics, and by the Reform Bill 
of 1832 he also secured a redistribution of the representation 
Later Par- f Qr ^ j ower House, which greatly reduced the power of 

the Crown and of the peers over the House of Commons, 
reforms. r 

In this struggle Macaulay had a share, having entered Parlia- 
ment in 1830 and espoused the Whig Principles. Thus the names 
of Milton, Addison, and Macaulay become linked together in our 
minds by reason of their community of interests as leading Whigs at 
important epochs. For, although the party name " Whig" did not 
come into use until 1679, yet the Puritan political principles were 
fundamentally the same as those which found expression in the 
Revolution of 1688, and Milton, Addison, and Macaulay stand upon 
common ground in their championship of the principles of liberty, 
enlightenment, and progress. 

* " On the Catholic question, on the principles of commerce, on the 
corn-laws, on the settlement of the currency, on the laws regulating the 
trade in money, on colonial slavery, on the game laws, which are inti- 
mately connected with the moral habits of the people ; on all these ques- 
tions and everything like them, the Government found support from the 
Whigs, and resistance from their self-denominated friends." — Palmer- 
STON — Letter on effects of election of 1826. 



Chronological Table of the Notable Events referred to 
in the Essay on Addison. 



POLITICAL HISTORY. 
1672. 

1685. Accession of James II. 

1687. 

1688. " The Glorious Revolution." 

1689-1697. Palatinate War. 

1690. Battle of the Boyne. 

1693. 

1694. Expiration of " Censorship." 

1697-8. 
1699. 

1701. February, Tories. Halifax im- 
peached. 
1701. June, Act of Settlement. 

1701. September, Louis proclaims 

James III. 
1701-1713. Spanish Succession War. 

1702. Accession of Anne. 

*7°3- 

1704. Battle of Blenheim. 

1705. WhigS. 

1706. Battle of Ramillies. 

1707. Union of England and Scotland. 

1708. Sunderland dismissed. 

1709. Wharton Lord Lieutenant of 

Ireland. 

1710. Tories. (Sacheverell.) 

1711. Marlborough disgraced. 

1713. Treaty of Utrecht. 

1714. August, Death of Anne. Inter- 

regnum, seven weeks. 

1714. September 18, Accession of 

George I. 

1715. WhigS. Impeachment of Boling- 

broke and Oxford. 
1715. 

1716. 

1717. 

1718. 
1719- 

1719. June 17. 

1720. Collapse of " South Sea Bubble." 
1721-1742. Ascendency of Walpole. 
1743-1754. Ascendency of Pelham 

(Pitt, Bedford). 
T-l^-T-in- Ascendency of Newcastle 

1757-1761. Coalition Ministry (New- 
castle, Pitt). 



LITERARY HISTORY. 

Addison b., May 1. Steele b., March. 

Addison enters Oxford University. 

Steele enters Christ Church College, 
[Oxford. 
Addison becomes Master of Arts. 
The Georgics. Steele enlists. 

Addison elected Fellow of Magdalene. 
Addison's travelling pension granted. 



Addison loses his pension. 
Addison returns to England. 
The Campaign. Remarks on Italy. 
Addison Commissioner of Appeal in 
[Excise. 
Addison Under-Secretary of State, 

with Hedges and Sunderland. 
Addison to Hanover. Steele Gazetteer. 
Addison loses Under-Secretaryship. 

M.P. for Malmesbury. 
Addison Secretary for Ireland. Taller. 

Addison leaves Ireland. Steele Com- 
missioner of Stamps. 
Spectator, First series. 
Guardian. Cato. 
Addison Secretary to Lords Justices. 

Spectator, Second series. 

Addison Member of Board of Trade. 

Addison's Quarrel with Pope. Drum- 
mer. Freeholder. 

Addison's Marriage. Commissioner for 
Trade and Colonies. 

Addison Secretary of State with Sunder 
land. 

Addison resigns Secretaryship. 

The Old Whig. 

Addison died of asthma and dropsy. 

Steele died, 1729. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

MACAU LAY. 

Chiefly Biographical. 
Life of Macaulay. 

i. By G. O. Trevelyan. (2 vols., Harpers.) 

2. By J. Cotter Morison. English Men of Letters Series. 

(Harpers.) 

3. By C. H. Jones. (Appleton.) 
Chiefly Critical. 

Essays on Macaulay's Literary Work. 

1. By Walter Bagehot. In Literary Studies, Vol. II. 

2. By Leslie Stephen. In Hours in a Library, Vol. III. 

3. By Matthew Arnold. In Mixed Essays. 
General Criticism. 

In Minto's Manual of English Prose Literature, pp. 87-130; 
Taine's History of English Literature, Bk. III., pp. 256-294; 
and Clark's A Study of English Prose Writers, pp. 420-454. 

ADDISON. 

Chiefly Biographical. 
Joseph Addison. 

1. By W. J. Courthope. English Men of Letters Series. 

(Harpers.) 

2. Landmarks of English Literature, Nicholl, pp. 171-182. 
Chiefly Critical. 

Minto's Manual of English Prose Literature, pp. 432-450; Taine's 
History of English Literature, Bk. III., Ch. IV.; Clark's A 
Study of English Prose Writers, pp. 82-116; Mrs. Oliphant's 
Historical Characters of the Reign of Queen Anne (Addison, 
the Humorist) ; Thackeray's Lectures on the English Hu- 
morists of the Eighteenth Century (Congreve and Addison). 



ADDISON. xxxi 



DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ADDISON'S WORKS MENTIONED 
IN THIS ESSAY. 

Verses to Mr. Dryden (1693) is a short poem in which Dryden is praised 
for his successful translations of the works of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, 
etc., into English verse. Having thus gained the favorable notice of 
the older poet, Addison paid him the delicate compliment of imita- 
tion in publishing, a year later, his own 

Translation of the Fourth Georgic (1694), which treats of the culture of 
bees. In the same year appeared a poetical epistle formally ad- 
dressed to Henry Sacheverell (Int., p. xxiii), entitled 

An Account of the Greatest English Poets. But, as Addison included in 
the same list with the names of Chaucer, Spenser, and Milton, that 
of Charles Montague, it maybe suspected that the epistle was ad- 
dressed rather to his future patron than to his college mate. The 
next year he made a bolder appeal for patronage in his 

Address to King William (1695), celebrating the monarch's achieve- 
ments in the struggle then being waged against Louis XIV. The 
introduction to this poem took the form of a laudatory 

Address to Lord So /tiers, then Lord Keeper of the Great Seal (Index, 
" Seals "). Meanwhile, Dryden, who had praised Addison's transla- 
tion from the Georgics, had obtained from him a critical 

Essay upon the Georgics, to be used as a preface to his own translation, 
and Addison was at work upon his own 

Translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses, — stories from Books 3 
and 4. 

During his stay at Magdalen, Addison produced a group of Latin 
poems, subsequently published in the Muses Anglicance (1699), the 
most important of which was the 

Pax Gulielmi Auspiciis Europce Reddita (1697), a poem felicitating 
King William III. upon his successful negotiation of the peace of 
Ryswick (Int., p. xx). The others include, besides laudatory ad- 
dresses to friends, the 

Barometri Descriptio, a mere exercise in versifying a description of the 
construction and uses of the barometer; 

Splicer isterium, a similar description of the sports of a bowling-green ; 

Machines Gesticulautes, a lively description of the popular form of en- 
tertainment known as a "puppet-show"; and a more important 
effort, the 

Pygmceo-Geranomachia, which elaborates in fanciful vein a theme sug- 
gested by Homer's reference to the annual battle between the pyg- 
mies and the cranes {Iliad III. 3-6). This entire group, consisting 
for the most part of poems from fifty to a hundred lines in length, is 
dedicated to Cha-les Montague. 



xxxii ADDISON. 

The first fruits of Addison's foreign tour appeared in the 

Letter from Italy (1701), a poetical epistle addressed to Montague (now 
Lord Halifax), in which he compares the present conditions in Italy 
and France with those which prevail in England, and extols the lat- 
ter as the home of Liberty. In Vienna he composed his 

Dialogue upon the Usefulness of Ancient Medals, a work in which Phi- 
lander, Cynthus, and Eugemas discuss the service performed by 
medals in preserving dates, representations of objects, and general 
historical facts. The most important result of Addison's foreign tour, 
however, was the 

Remarks on Several Parts of Italy. In this he gives expression to the 
reflections of a man of classic learning and culture, upon visiting 
scenes with the ancient aspect of which his studies have made him 
imaginatively familiar. This work was not given to the world until 
after he had won favor and fame by the publication of 

The Campaign (1704), the history of which is told in H1I 50 to 57 of 
the essay. The poem describes the march of Marlborough from the 
Netherlands through the valleys of the Rhine and the Neckar, his 
conjunction with Prince Eugene, and their united victory over the 
French and Bavarians at Blenheim. 

Rosamond (1706) is an opera in three acts, based upon the legend of 
King Henry II. and the Fair Rosamond, whom he kept immured in 
the bower at Woodstock, and who is said to have been poisoned by 
his queen, Eleanor. In the interest of morality, Addison makes 
Henry repent his sin and Eleanor spare her rival, who retires to a 
convent; and he makes capital out of contemporary politics by in- 
troducing a scene in which the monarch, in prophetic vision, sees 
Woodstock transformed into the estate of Blenheim as a present to 
the victorious Duke of Marlborough. For an account of 

The Taller, see HH 75-89, and List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv, and for an 
account of 

The Examiner, The Spectator, and The Guardian, see HIT 94-104, 118; 
and also List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv. 

Cato (1713) is a drama in four acts based on the fate of Marcus Porcius 
Cato in his attempt to defend Utica against Julius Caesar after the 
latter's victories over Pompey and Scipio. In the first act is disclosed 
the conspiracy of Sempronius, who, whi'e pretending to share Cato's 
hostility to Caesar, is secretly attempting to induce the garrison of 
Numidians commanded bySvphax to desert to Caesar. The second 
act shows Cato urging the Senate to stand firm in defending Africa 
from the tyrant (the "perpetual dictator" of Bolingbroke, H no) 
who has already crushed the liberties of Rome and Egypt. In the 
fourth act Sempronius attempts the abduction of Cato's daughter 
Marcia, but is slain by her lover, a loyal Numidian prince named 
Juba. The last act deals with the suicide of Cato, consequent upon 



ADDISON. xxxiii 

his discovery that Caesar's advance cannot be checked. It opens 
with Cato's famous soliloquy upon the future life, based upon the 
arguments in Plato's Phcedo : — 

" It must be so, Plato, thou reason'st well ! 
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 
This longing after immortality ? — " 

The Late Trial and Conviction of Count Tariff (1713) was a pamphlet 
in which Addison voiced the criticisms of the Whig mercantile class 
upon the provisions of the treaty of Utrecht, a Tory measure, under 
the image of a lawsuit between Count Tariff and Goodman Fact. 
The success of the Cato led to the production of another play, the 
comedy called 

The Drummer (1715) , enacted at Dairy Lane Theatre. The plot of The 
[hummer hinges upon the attempt of a fortune-hunting suitor to play 
upon the fears of a woman whose husband is supposed to have been 
killed in battle, and whom he hopes to terrify into marriage. He 
circulates a rumor that her house is haunted, and then himself plays 
the part of the ghost by concealing himself in various parts of the 
house and beating a drum. The scheme is frustrated by the return 
of her husband and the exposure of the fraud. For accounts of 

The Freeholder (1715) and The Old Whig (1719), see HH 129, 157, and 
List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv. The first part of Addison's unfinished 
treatise on the 

Evidences of the Christian Religion discusses the value of the corrobo- 
rative evidence of the truth of the Gospels which may be obtained 
from the works of pagan writers. 

To some period late in his life must be attributed Addison's 

Lines to Sir Godfrey Kueller, in which the poet draws an elaborate par- 
allel between the work of Phidias (who, beginning with the lesser 
gods, achieved finally the task of depicting Jove himself) and that of 
Kneller, who began with a portrait of Charles II. and ended with 
that of George I., beyond which (says the poet) no higher achievement 
remained to be undertaken. 



ADDISON. 



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THE LIFE AND WRITINGS 
OF ADDISON.* 

(Edinburgh Review, July, 1843.) 

1. Some reviewers are of opinion that a lady who dares 
to publish a book renounces by that act the franchises 
appertaining to her sex, and can claim no exemption 
from the utmost rigour of critical procedure. From that 

5 opinion we dissent. We admit, indeed, that in a 

H) c f c re n c c 

country which boasts of many female writers, emi- due to sex 
nently qualified by their talents and acquirements of an au - 
to influence the public mind, it would be of most 
pernicious consequence that inaccurate history or unsound 

10 philosophy should be suffered to pass uncensured, merely 
because the offender chanced to be a lady. But we con- 
ceive that, on such occasions, a critic would do well to 
imitate the courteous Knight who found himself com- 
pelled by duty to keep the lists against Bradamante. 

15 He, we are told, defended successfully the cause of which 
he was the champion ; but before the fight began, ex- 
changed Balisarda for a less deadly sword, of which he 
carefully blunted the point and edge. 

2. Nor are the immunities of sex the only immunities 
20 which Miss Aikin° may rightfully plead. Several of her 

* Tlie Life of Joseph Addison. By Lucy Aikin. 2 vols. 8vo. 
London : 1843. 



2 ADDISON. 

works, and especially the very pleasing Memoirs of the 
Reign of James the First, have fully entitled her to the 
and to re privileges enjoyed by good writers. One of those 
vious good privileges we hold to be this, that such writers, 
work " when, either from the unlucky choice of a subject, 5 

or from the indolence too often produced by success, 
they happen to fail, shall not be subjected to the severe 
discipline which it is sometimes necessary to inflict upon 
dunces and impostors, but shall merely be reminded by a 
gentle touch, like that with which the Lnputan flapper 10 
roused his dreaming lord, 1 that it is high time to wake. 

3. Our readers will probably infer from what we have 
said that Miss Aikin's book has disappointed us. The 
truth is, that she is not well acquainted with her 
f subject. No person who is not familiar with the 15 
Miss Ai- political and literary history of England during the 
kin's work. reigns of William the Third, of Anne, and of George 
the First, can possibly write a good life of Addison. Now, 
we mean no reproach to Miss Aikin, and many will think 
that we pay her a compliment, when we say that her 20 
studies have taken a different direction. She is better 
acquainted with Shakspeare and Raleigh, than with Con- 
greve and Prior ; and is far more at home among the 
ruffs and peaked beards of Theobald's than among the 
Steenkirks and flowing periwigs which surrounded Queen 25 
Anne's tea table at Hampton. She seems to have written 
about the Elizabethan age, because she had read much 
about it ; she seems, on the other hand, to have read a 
little about the age' of Addison, because she had deter- 
mined to write about it. The consequence is that she 30 

1 Index, " Swift." 



ADDISON, 3 

has had to describe men and things without having either 
a correct or a vivid idea of them, and that she has often 
fallen into errors of a very serious kind. The reputation 
which Miss Aikin has justly earned stands so high, and 
5 the charm of Addison's letters is so great, that a second 
edition of this work may probably be required. If so, 
we hope that every paragraph will be revised, and that 
every date and fact about which there can be the smallest 
doubt will be carefully verified. 

10 4. To Addison himself we are bound by a sentiment 
as much like affection as any sentiment can be, which is 
inspired by one who has been sleeping a hundred and 
twenty years in Westminster Abbey. We trust, however, 
that this feeling will not betray us into that abject Addison ._ 

I5 idolatry which we have often had occasion to repre- literary esti 
hend in others, and which seldom fails to make both mate; 
the idolater and the idol ridiculous. ( A man of genius 
and virtue is but a man. All his powers cannot be equally 
developed ; nor can we expect from him perfect self- 

20 knowledge. We need not, therefore, hesitate to admit 
that Addison has left us some compositions which do not 
rise above mediocrity, some heroic poems hardly equal 
to Parnell's, some criticism as superficial as Dr. Blair's, 
and a tragedy not very much better than Dr. Johnson's. 

25 It is praise enough to say of a writer that, in a high 
department of literature, in which many eminent writers 
have distinguished themselves, he has had no equal ; and 
this may with strict justice be said of Addison.) 

5. As a man, he may not have deserved the adoration 

30 which he received from those who, bewitched by his 
fascinating society, and indebted for all the comforts of 



4 ADDISON. 

life to his generous and delicate friendship, worshipped 
him nightly, in his favourite temple at Buttons. 1 But, 
personal after full inquiry and impartial reflection, we have 
estimate. i on g been convinced that he deserved as much love 
and esteem as can be justly claimed by any of our infirm 5 
and erring race. Some blemishes may undoubtedly be 
detected in his character ; but the more carefully it is 
examined, the more will it appear, to use the phrase of 
the old anatomists, sound in the noble parts, free from 
all taint of perfidy, of cowardice, of cruelty, of ingratitude, 10 
of envy. Men may easily be named, in whom some par- 
ticular good disposition has been more conspicuous than in 
Addison. But the just harmony of qualities, the exact tem- 
per between the stern and the humane virtues, the habitual 
observance of every law, not only of moral rectitude, but of 15 
• moral grace and dignity, distinguish him from all men 
who have been tried by equally strong temptations, and 
about whose conduct we possess equally full information. 

6. His father was the Reverend Lancelot Addison, 
who, though eclipsed by his more celebrated son, made 20 
Addison's some figure in the world, and occupies with credit 
father. t NV0 folio pages in the Biographia Britannica. Lance- 

lot was sent up, as a poor scholar, from Westmoreland to 
Queen's College, Oxford, in the time of the Common- 
wealth, made some progress in learning, became, like 25 
most of his fellow-students, a violent Royalist, lampooned 
the heads of the University, and was forced to ask pardon 
on his bended knees. When he had left college, he 
earned a humble subsistence by reading the liturgy of 

1 Index, " Clubs." 



ADDISON. 5 

the fallen Church to the families of those sturdy squires 
whose manor houses were scattered over the Wild of 
Sussex. After the Restoration, his loyalty was rewarded 
with the post of chaplain to the garrison of Dunkirk. 
5 When Dunkirk was sold to France, he lost his employ- 
ment. But Tangier had been ceded by Portugal to Eng- 
land as part of the marriage portion of the Infanta 
Catharine ; and to Tangier Lancelot Addison was sent. A 
more miserable situation can hardly be conceived. It was 

I0 difficult to say whether the unfortunate settlers were more 
tormented by the heats or by the rains, by the soldiers 
within the wall or by the Moors without it. One advan- 
tage the chaplain had. He enjoyed an excellent oppor- 
tunity of studying the history and manners of Jews and 

15 Mahometans ; and of this opportunity he appears to 
have made excellent use. On his return to England, 
after some years of banishment, he published an interest- 
ing volume on the Polity and Religion of Barbary, and 
another on the Hebrew Customs and the State of Rab- 

20 binical Learning. He rose to eminence in his profession, 
and became one of the royal chaplains, a Doctor of 
Divinity, Archdeacon of Salisbury, and Dean of Lichfield. 
It is said that he would have been made a bishop after 
the Revolution, if he had not given offence to the govern- 

25 ment by strenuously opposing, in the Convocation of 
1689, the liberal policy of William and Tillotson. 

7. In 1672, not long after Dr. Addison's return from 
Tangier, his son Joseph was born. Of Joseph's child- 
hood we know little. He learned his rudiments Hisbov- 

30 at schools in his father's neighbourhood, and was hood - 
then sent to the Cha r ter House. The anecdotes which 



6 ADDISON. 

are popularly related about his boyish tricks do not har- 
monise very well with what we know of his riper years. 
There remains a tradition that he was the ringleader in a 
barring out, and another tradition that he ran away from 
school and hid himself in a wood, where he fed on ber- 5 
ries and slept in a hollow tree, till after a long search he 
was discovered and brought home. If these stories be 
true, it would be curious to know by what moral disci- 
pline so mutinous and enterprising a lad was transformed 
into the gentlest and most modest of men. I0 

8. We have abundant proof that, whatever Joseph's 
pranks may have been, he pursued his studies vigorously 
His early and successfully. At fifteen he was not only fit 
education, for the university, but carried thither a classical 
taste and a stock of learning which would have done 15 
honour to a Master of Arts. He was entered at Queen's 
College, Oxford ; but he had not been many months 
there, when some of his Latin verses fell by accident into 
the hands of Dr. Lancaster, Dean of Magdalene College. 1 
The young scholar's diction and versification were 20 
already such as veteran professors might envy. Dr. Lan- 
caster was desirous to serve a boy of such promise ; nor 
was an opportunity long wanting. The Revolution 2 had 
just taken place ; and nowhere had it been hailed with 
more delight than at Magdalene College. That great 25 
and opulent corporation had been treated by James, and 
by his Chancellor, with an insolence and injustice which, 
even in such a Prince and in such a Minister, may justly 
excite amazement, and which had done more than even 
the prosecution of the Bishops" to alienate the Church 30 

1 Index, " Universities." 2 Int., p. xvii. 3 /£ t> p . xv iii. 



ADDISON. 7 

of England from the throne. A president, duly elected, 
had been violently expelled from his dwelling : a Papist 
had been set over the society by a royal mandate : the 
Fellows 1 who, in conformity with their oaths, had refused 
5 to submit to this usurper, had been driven forth from 
their quiet cloisters and gardens, to die of want or to live 
on charity. But the day of redress and retribution 
speedily came. The intruders were ejected : the vener- 
able House was again inhabited by its old inmates : learn- 

ioing flourished under the rule of the wise and virtuous 
Hough ; and with learning was united a mild and liberal 
spirit too often wanting in the princely colleges of Ox- 
ford. 1 In consequence of the troubles through which the 
society had passed, there had been no valid election of 

15 new members during the year 1688. In 1689, therefore, 
there was twice the ordinary number of vacancies ; and 
thus Dr. Lancaster found it easy to procure for his young 
friend admittance to the advantages of a foundation then 
generally esteemed the wealthiest in Europe. 

20 9. At Magdalene, Addison resided during ten years. 
He was, at first, one of those scholars who are called 
Demies, 1 but was subsequently elected a fellow. His college 
His college is still proud of his name : his portrait car eer. 
still hangs in the hall ; and strangers are still told that 

25 his favourite walk was under the elms which fringe the 
meadow on the banks of the Cherwell. It is said, and is 
highly probable, that he was distinguished among his fel- 
low-students by the delicacy of his feelings, by the shy- 
ness of his manners, and by the assiduity with which he 

3 o often prolonged his studies far into the night. It is cer- 

1 Index," Universities." 



8 ADDISON. 

tain that his reputation for ability and learning stood 
high. Many years later, the ancient doctors of Mag- 
dalene continued to talk in their common room of his 
boyish compositions, and expressed their sorrow that no 
copy of exercises so remarkable had been preserved. 5 

10. It is proper, however, to remark that Miss Aikin has 

committed the error, very pardonable in a lady, of over- 

His classi- ratni g Addison's classical attainments. In one 

cal learn- department of learning, indeed, his proficiency was 

such as it is hardly possible to overrate. His know- 10 
ledge of the Latin poets, from Lucretius and Catullus 
down to Claudian and Prudentius, was singularly exact 
and profound. He understood them thoroughly, entered 
into their spirit, and had the finest and most discriminat- 
ing perception of all their peculiarities of style and mel- 15 
ody ; nay, he copied their manner with admirable skill, 
and surpassed, we think, all their British imitators who 
had preceded him, Buchanan and Milton alone excepted. 
This is high praise ; and beyond this we cannot with jus- - 
tice go. It is clear that Addison's serious attention dur- 20 
ing his residence at the university, was almost entirely 
concentrated on Latin poetry, and that, if he did not 
wholly neglect other provinces of ancient literature, he 
vouchsafed to them only a cursory glance. He does 
not appear to have attained more than an ordinary 25 
acquaintance with the political and moral writers of 
Rome; nor was his own Latin prose by any means equal 
to his Latin verse. His knowledge of Greek, though 
doubtless such as was, in his time, thought respectable 
at Oxford, was evidently less than that which many lads 3° 
now carry away every year from Eton and Rugby. A 



ADDISON. 9 

minute examination of his works, if we had time to make 
such an examination, would fully bear out these remarks. 
We will briefly advert to a few of the facts on which our 
judgment is grounded. 
5 ii. Great praise is due to the Notes which Addison 
appended to his version of the second and third books of 
the Metamorphoses. Yet those notes, while they , 

J (Internal 

show him to have been, in his own domain, an evidences; 
accomplished scholar, show also how confined that from P oetic 

references 

io domain was. They are rich in apposite references 
to Virgil, Statius, and Claudian ; but they contain not 
a single illustration drawn from the Greek poets. Now, 
if, in the whole compass of Latin literature, there be a 
passage which stands in need of illustration drawn from 

15 the Greek poets, it is the story of Pentheus in the third 
book of the Metamorphoses. Ovid was indebted for that 
story to Euripides and Theocritus, both of whom he has 
sometimes followed minutely. But neither to Euripides 
nor to Theocritus does Addison make the faintest allusion ; 

20 and we, therefore, believe that we do not wrong him by 
supposing that he had little or no knowledge of their 
works. 

12. His travels in Italy, again, abound with classical 
quotations happily introduced ; but scarcely one of those 

25 quotations is in prose. He draws more illustrations f CTeo 
from Ausonius and Manilius than from Cicero. graphical 
Even his notions of the political and military affairs references . 
of the Romans seem to be derived from poets and poetas- 
ters. Spots made memorable by events which have 

30 changed the destinies of the world, and which have 
been worthily recorded by great historians, bring to his 



io ADDISON 

mind only scraps of some ancient versifier. In the gorge 
of the Apennines he naturally remembers the hardships 
which Hannibal's army endured, and proceeds to cite, 
not the authentic narrative of Polybius, not the pictur- 
esque narrative of Livy, but the languid hexameters of 5 
Silius Italicus. On the banks of the Rubicon he never 
thinks of Plutarch's lively description, or of the stern con- 
ciseness of the Commentaries, or of those letters to Atti- 
cus° which so forcibly express the alternations of hope and 
fear in a sensitive mind at a great crisis. His only author- 10 
ity for the events of the Civil War is Lucan.° 

l$. All the best ancient works of art at Rome and 

Florence are Greek. Addison saw them, however, with- 

from nftr- out recalling one single verse of Pindar, of Callima- 

ences to chus,° or of the Attic dramatists ; but they brought 15 

.ui, tQ kj g reco i] ec tj on innumerable passages of Horace, 

Juvenal, Statins, and Ovid. 

14. The same may be said of the Treatise on Medals. 
In that pleasing work we find about three hundred pas- 

from refer- sa § es extracted with great judgment from the Roman 20 
ences to poets ; but we do not recollect a single passage taken 
from any Roman orator or historian ; and we are 
confident that not a line is quoted from any Greek writer. 
No person, who had derived all his information on the 
subject of medals from Addison, would suspect that the 25 
Greek coins were in historical interest equal, and in beauty 
of execution far superior to those of Rome. 

15. If it were necessary to find any further proof that 
Addison's classical knowledge was confined within narrow 
limits, that proof would be furnished by his Essay on the 30 
Evidences of Christianity. The Roman poets throw 



ADDISON. ii 

little or no light on the literary and historical questions 
which he is under the necessity of examining in that 
Essay. He is, therefore, left completely in the from 
dark ; and it is melancholy to see how helplessly references 
5 he gropes his way from blunder to blunder. He as- to llstoiy 
signs, as grounds for his religious belief, stories as absurd 
as that of the Cock-Lane° ghost, and forgeries as rank as 
Ireland's Vortigern, puts faith in the lie about the Thun- 
dering Legion, is convinced that Tiberius moved the senate 

io to admit Jesus among the gods, and pronounces the letter 
of Abgarus King of Edessa to be a record of great author- 
ity. Nor were these errors the effects of superstition ; for 
to superstition Addison was by no means prone. The truth 
is that he was writing about what he did not understand. 

15 16. Miss Aikin has discovered a letter from which it 
appears that, while Addison resided at Oxford, he was one 
of several writers whom the booksellers engaged to and lmm 
make an English version of Herodotus ; and she transla- 
infers that he must have been a good Greek scholar. tlon '^ 

20 We can allow very little weight to this argument, when we 
consider that his fellow-labourers were to have been Boyle 1 
and Blackmore. Boyle is remembered chiefly as the 
nominal author of the worst book on Greek history and 
philology that ever was printed ; and this book, bad as it 

2 5 is, Boyle was unable to produce without help. Of Black- 
more's attainments in the ancient tongues, it may be suffi- 
cient to say that, in his prose, he has confounded an 
aphorism with an apophthegm, and that when, in his 
verse, he treats of classical subjects, his habit is to regale 

30 his readers with four false quantities to a page. 

1 Index, " Boyle, Charles." 



12 ADDISON. 

1 7. It is probable that the classical acquirements of 
Addison were of as much service to him as if they had 

been more extensive. The world generally gives 

Its value. .... . , , . 

its admiration, not to the man who does what 
nobody else even attempts to do, but to the man who 5 
does best what multitudes do well. Bentley was so 
immeasurably superior to all the other scholars of his 
time that few among them could discover his superiority. 
But the accomplishment in which Addison excelled his 
contemporaries was then, as it is now, highly valued and i< 
assiduously cultivated at all English seats of learning. 
Everybody who had been at a public school had 
written Latin verses ; many had written such verses with 
tolerable success, and were quite able to appreciate, though 
by no means able to rival, the skill with which Addison i< 
imitated Virgil. His lines on the Barometer and the 
Bowling Green were applauded by hundreds, to whom the 
Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris x was as unintelli- 
gible as the hieroglyphics on an obelisk. 

18. Purity of style, and an easy flow of numbers, are 2< 
common to all Addison's Latin poems. Our favourite 

His Latin piece is the Battle of the Cranes and Pygmies ; for 
style. in that piece we discern a gleam of the fancy and 

humour which many years later enlivened thousands of 
breakfast tables. Swift boasted that he was never 2; 
known to steal a hint ; and he certainly owed as little to 
his predecessors as any modern writer. Yet we cannot 
help suspecting that he borrowed, perhaps unconsciously, 
one of the happiest touches in his Voyage to Lilliput 2 
from Addison's verses. Let our readers judge. 3. 

1 Index, "Boyle, Charles." 2 Index, " Swift." 



ADDISON. 13 

19. " The Emperor," says Gulliver, 1 " is taller by about 
the breadth of my nail than any of his court, which alone 
is enough to strike an awe into the beholders." 

About thirty years before Gulliver's Travels appeared, 
5 Addison wrote these lines : — 

" Jamque acies inter medias sese arduus infert 
Pygmeadum ductor, qui, majestate ver^ndus, 
Incessuque gravis, reliquos supereminet omnes 
Mole gigantea, mediamque exsurgit in ulnam." 2 

10 20. The Latin poems of Addison were greatly and 
justly admired both at Oxford and Cambridge, before his 
name had ever been heard by the wits who thronged H}s first 
the coffee-houses round Drury-Lane° theatre. 3 In his English 
twenty-second year, he ventured to appear before verse - 

15 the public as a writer of English verse. He addressed 
some complimentary lines to Dryden, who, after many 
triumphs and many reverses, had at length reached a 
secure and lonely eminence among the literary men of 
that age. Dryden appears to have been much gratified by 

20 the young scholar's praise ; and an interchange of civilities 
and good offices followed. Addison was probably intro- 
duced by Dryden to Congreve, and was certainly pre- 
sented by Congreve to Charles Montague, 4 who was 
then Chancellor of the Exchequer, 5 and leader of the 

25 Whig party in the House of Commons. 

21. At this time Addison seemed inclined to devote 
himself to poetry. He published a translation of part His ear i y 
of the fourth Georgic, Lines to King William, heroic 
and other performances of equal value, that is to verse ' 

1 Index, "Swift." 2 Note, p. 113. 3g e e Map, p. 125. 

4 Index, " Halifax." 5 i n t #j p. x iv. 



14 ADDISON 

. of no value at all. But in those days, the public . 
in the habit of receiving with applause pieces which would 
now have little chance of obtaining the Newdigate prize 
or the Seatonian r prize. And the reason is obvious. The 
heroic couplet was then the favourite measure. The art 5 
of arranging words in that measure, so that the lines 
ma] Qoothlyj that the accents may fall correctly, 

that the rhymes may strike the ear strongly, and that 
there may be a pause at the end of even - distich, is an 
art as mechanical as that of mending a kettle or shoeing 10 
a horse, am. 1 learned by any human being who 

enough to learn anything. But, like other 
mechanical arts, it was gradually improved by means oi 
many experiments and many failures. It . ed 

for Pope : to the trick, to make himself complete ig 

master of it. and to teach it to everybody else. From 
the time when his Pastorals appeared, heroic versification 
became matter of rule and compass ; and. before k § 
all artists were on a level. Hundreds of dunces who 
never blundered on one happy thought or expres- 
were able to write reams of couplets which, as far 
euphony was concerned, could not be distinguished from 
those of Pope himself, and which very clever writers of 
the reign of Charles the Second. Roche- sample, 

or I >ldham,° would have contemplated with 25 

admiring despair. 

22. Ben Jonson = was a great man. Hoole 3 a \ 

A small man. But Hoole, coming after Pope, had 
compared ? r 

with earlier learned how to manufacture decasyllabic verses, and 
models, poured them forth by thousands and tens of the 
sands, all as well turned, as smooth, and as like each other 



ADDISON. 15 

as the blocks which have passed through Mr. Brunei's mill 
in the dockyards at Portsmouth. Ben's heroic couplets 
resemble blocks rudely hewn out by an unpractised hand 
with a blunt hatchet. Take as a specimen his translation 
5 of a celebrated passage in the JEneid 3 : — 

"This child our parent earth, stirred up with spite 
Of all the gods, brought forth, and, as some write, 
She was last sister of that giant race 
That sought to scale Jove's court, right swift of pace, 
10 And swifter far of wing, a monster vast 

And dreadful. Look, how many plumes are placed 
On her huge corpse, so many waking eyes 
Stick underneath, and, which may stranger rise 
In the report, as many tongues she wears." l 

15 23. Compare with these jagged misshapen distichs the 
neat fabric which Hoole's machine produces in unlimited 
abundance. We take the first lines on which we ;md wilh 
open in his version of Tasso.° They are neither latei " ones > 
better nor worse than the rest : — 

20 "O thou, whoe'er thou art, whose steps are led, 

By choice of fate, these lonely shores to tread. 
No greater wonders east or west can boast 
Than yon small island on the pleasing coast. 
If e'er thy sight would blissful scenes explore, 

25 The current pass, and seek the further shore.'' - 

24. Ever since the time of Pope there has been a glut 

of lines of this sort, and we are now as little disposed to 

admire a man for being able to write them, as for ... 
and with 

being able to write his name. But in the days of contempo- 
30 William the Third such versification was rare ; and rary work< 
a rhymer who had any skill in it passed for a great poet, 
1 Xote, p. 113. '- Gerusalemme Liberata, xi 



16 ADDISON. 

just as in the dark ages a person who could write his 
name passed for a great clerk. Accordingly, Duke,° 
Stepney, Granville, Walsh, and others, whose only 
title to fame was that they said in tolerable metre what 
might have been as well said in prose, or what was not 5 
worth saying at all, were honoured with marks of dis- 
tinction which ought to be reserved for genius. With 
these Addison must have ranked, if he had not earned 
true and lasting glory by performances which very little 
resembled his juvenile poems. 10 

25. Dryden was now busied with Virgil, and obtained 
from Addison a critical preface to the Georgics. In re- 

r, , .. turn for this service, and for other services of the 

Relations 

with same kind, the veteran poet, in the postscript to 

Dryden. t ^ e translation of the ^Eneid, complimented his 15 
young friend with great liberality, and indeed with more 
liberality than sincerity. He affected to be afraid that 
his own performance would not sustain a comparison 
with the version of the fourth Georgic, by " the most 
ingenious Mr. Addison of Oxford." "After his bees," 20 
added Dryden, " my latter swarm is scarcely worth the 
hiving." 

26. The time had now arrived when it was necessary 
for Addison to choose a calling. Everything seemed to 

Choice of a point his course towards the clerical profession. 25 
career. His m s habits were regular, his opinions orthodox. 
Wsoppor^ H ^ s C01 l e g e na d large ecclesiastical preferment in 
tunity. its gift, and boasts that it has given at least one 

bishop to almost every see in England. Dr. Lancelot 
Addison held an honourable place in the Church, and had 30 



ADDISON. 17 

set his heart on seeing his son a clergyman. It is clear, 
from some expressions in the young man's rhymes, that his 
intention was to take orders. But Charles Montague l inter- 
fered. Montague had first brought himself into notice by 

5 verses, well timed and not contemptibly written, but never, 
we think, rising above mediocrity. Fortunately for himself 
and for his country, he early quitted poetry, in which he 
could never have attained a rank as high as that of 
Dorset or Rochester, and turned his mind to official 

10 and parliamentary business. It is written that the ingen- 
ious person who undertook to instruct Rasselas, 2 prince 
of Abyssinia, in the art of flying, ascended an eminence, 
waved his wings, sprang into the air, and instantly dropped 
into the lake. But it is added that the wings, which were 

15 unable to support him through the sky, bore him up effec- 
tually as soon as he was in the water. This is no bad type 
of the fate of Charles Montague, and of men like him. 
When he attempted to soar into the regions of poetical in- 
vention, he altogether failed ; but, as soon as he had de- 

20 scended from that ethereal elevation into a lower and grosser 
element, his talents instantly raised him above the mass. 
He became a distinguished financier, debater, courtier, 
and party leader. He still retained his fondness for the 
pursuits of his early days ; but he showed that fondness 

25 not by wearying the public with his own feeble perform- 
ances, but by discovering and encouraging literary excel- 
lence in others. A crowd of wits and poets, who would 
easily have vanquished him as a competitor, revered him 
as a judge and a patron. In his plans for the encourage- 

30 ment of learning, he was cordially supported by the ablest 

1 Index, " Halifax." 2 Index, " Johnson," end. 



iS ADDISON. 

and most virtuous of his colleagues, Lord Chancellor 
Somers. Though both these great statesmen had a sin- 
cere love of letters, it was not solely from a love of letters 
that they were desirous to enlist youths of high intellec- 
tual qualifications in the public service. The Revolution 5 
had altered the whole system of government. 1 Before that 
event the press had been controlled by censors, and the 
Parliament had sat only two months in eight years. Now 
the press was free, and had begun to exercise unprece- 
dented influence on the public mind.. Parliament met 10 
annually and sat long. The chief power in the State had 
passed to the House of Commons. At such a conjuncture, 
it was natural that literary and oratorical talents should 
rise in value. There was danger that a Government 
which neglected such talents might be subverted by them. 15 
It was, therefore, a profound and enlightened policy which 
led Montague and Somers to attach such talents to the 
Whig party, by the strongest ties both of interest and of 
gratitude. x - 

27. It is remarkable that in a neighbouring country, 20 
we have recently seen similar effects follow from similar 
causes. The revolution of Tuly 18^0 established 

Illustration J J ° 

from representative government in France. The men 

French f letters instantly rose to the highest importance 

history. . , f \ 5 r , 

in the state. At the present moment most of the 25 
persons whom we see at the head both of the Administra- 
tion and of the Opposition, have been Professors, Histori- 
ans, Journalists, Poets. 2 The influence of the literary class 
in England, during the generation which followed the 
Revolution, was great, but by no means so great as it has 30 

1 Int., pp. xviii, xix, xx, xxi. 2 Note, p. 113. 



ADDISON. 19 

lately been in France. For, in England, the aristocracy 
of intellect had to contend with a powerful and deeply 
rooted aristocracy of a very different kind. France had 
no Somersets and Shrewsburies to keep down her Addi- 
5 sons and Priors. 

28. It was in the year 1699, when Addison had just 
completed his twenty-seventh year, that the course of his 
life was finally determined. Both the great chiefs of 

3 ° His enlist- 

the Ministry were kindly disposed towards him. In ment j n the 

10 political opinions he already was what he continued Whig 
to be through life, a firm though a moderate Whig. 
He had addressed the most polished and vigorous of his 
early English lines to Somers, and had dedicated to Mon- 
tague a Latin poem, truly Virgilian, both in style and 

I5 rhythm, on the peace of Ryswick. 1 The wish of the young 
poet's great friends was, it should seem, to employ him in 
the service of the crown abroad. But an intimate know- 
ledge of the French language was a qualification indispen- 
sable to a diplomatist ; and this qualification Addison had 

20 not acquired. It was, therefore, thought desirable that he 
should pass some time on the Continent in preparing 
himself for official employment. His own means were 
not such as would enable him to travel : but a pension 
of three hundred pounds a year was procured for him by 

25 the interest of the Lord Chancellor. It seems to have 
been apprehended that some difficulty might be started 
by the rulers of Magdalene College. But the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer wrote in the strongest terms to Hough. 
The State — such was the purport of Montague's letter 

30 — could not, at that time, spare to the Church such a 

1 Int., p. xx. 



20 ADDISON. 

man as Addison. Too many high civil posts were 
already occupied by adventurers, who, destitute of every 
liberal art and sentiment, at once pillaged and disgraced 
the country which they pretended to serve. It had 
become necessary to recruit for the public service from 5 
a very different class, from that class of which Addison 
was the representative. The close of the Minister's 
letter was remarkable. " I am called," he said, " an 
enemy of the Church. But I will never do it any other 
injury than keeping Mr. Addison out of it." tc 

29. This interference was successful ; and, in the sum- 
mer of 1699, Addison, made a rich man by his pension, 

Departure and still retaining his fellowship, quitted his beloved 
for Europe. Oxford, and set out on his travels. He crossed 
from Dover to Calais, proceeded to Paris, and was 15 
received there with great kindness and politeness by 
a kinsman of his friend Montague, Charles Earl of 
Manchester, who had just been appointed Ambassador 
to the Court of France. The Countess, a Whig and a 
toast, was probably as gracious as her lord; for Addison 20 
long retained an agreeable recollection of the impression 
which she at this time made on him, and, in some lively 
lines written on the glasses of the Kit Cat Club, 1 described 
the envy which her cheeks, glowing with the genuine 
bloom of England, had excited among the painted 25 
beauties of Versailles. 

30. Lewis the Fourteenth was at this time expiating 
Ex^eri- tne v * ces °f nis vou th by a devotion which had no 
ences at root in reason, and bore no fruit of charity. The 
Biois. servile literature of France had changed its character 30 

1 Index, "Clubs." 



ADDISON. 21 

to suit the changed character of the prince. No book 
appeared that had not an air of sanctity. Racine, who 
was just dead, had passed the close of his life in writing 
sacred dramas ; and Dacier was seeking for the Athana- 
5 sian° mysteries in Plato. Addison described this state 
of things in a short but lively and graceful letter to Mon- 
tague. Another letter, written about the same time to 
the Lord Chancellor, conveyed the strongest assurances 
of gratitude and attachment. " The only return I can 

10 make to your Lordship," said Addison, " will be to apply 
myself entirely to my business." With this view he 
quitted Paris and repaired to Blois,° a place where it was 
supposed that the French language was spoken in its 
highest purity, and where not a single Englishman could 

15 be found. Here he passed some months pleasantly and 
profitably. Of his way of life at Blois, one of his associ- 
ates, an Abbe named Philippeaux, gave an account to 
Joseph Spence. If this account is to be trusted, Addi- 
son studied much, mused much, talked little, had fits of 

20 absence, and either had no love affairs, or was too dis- 
creet to confide them to the Abbe. A man who, even 
when surrounded by fellow-countrymen and fellow-students, 
had always been remarkably shy and silent, was not likely 
to be loquacious in a foreign tongue, and among foreign 

25 companions. But it is clear from Addison's letters, some 
of which were long after published in the Guardian, 1 that, 
while he appeared to be absorbed in his own medita- 
tions, he was really observing French society with that 
keen and sly, yet not ill-natured side glance, which was 

30 peculiarly his own. 

1 See List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv. 



22 ADDISON. 

31. From Blois he returned to Paris ; ami, having now 
mastered the French language, found great pleasure in 
intercourse ^ ie soc i et y °f French philosophers and poets. He 
with gave an account, in a letter to Bishop Hough, of 

oileau. twQ hjghiv interesting conversations, one with Mai- 5 
branche, the other with Boileau. Malbranche expressed 
great partiality for the English, and extolled the genius 
of Newton, but shook his head when Hobbes was men- 
tioned, and was indeed so unjust as to call the author of 
the Leviathan a poor silly creature. Addison's modesty 10 
restrained him from fully relating, in his letter, the cir- 
cumstances of his introduction to Boileau. Boileau, hav- 
ing survived the friends and rivals of his youth, old, deaf, 
and melancholy, lived in retirement, seldom went either 
to Court or to the Academy, and was almost inaccessi- 15 
ble to strangers. Of the English and of English litera- 
ture he knew nothing. He had hardly heard the name 
of Dryden. Some of our countrymen, in the warmth of 
their patriotism, have asserted that this ignorance must 
have been affected. We own that we see no ground for 20 
such a supposition. English literature was to the French 
of the age of Lewis the Fourteenth what German litera- 
ture was to our own grandfathers. Very few, we suspect, 
of the accomplished men who, sixty or seventy years ago, 
used to dine in Leicester Square with Sir Joshua, 1 or at 25 
Streatham with Mrs. Thrale, had the slightest notion 
that Wieland was one of the first wits and poets, and 
Lessing, beyond all dispute, the first critic in Europe. 
Boileau knew just as little about the Paradise Lost and 
about Absalom and Ahitophel ; but he had read Addi- 30 

1 Index, " Reynolds." 



ADDISON. 23 

son's Latin poems, and admired them greatly. They 
had given him, he said, quite a new notion of the state 
of learning and taste among the English. Johnson will 
have it that these praises were insincere. "Nothing," 
5 says he, " is better known of Boileau than that he had an 
injudicious and peevish contempt of modern Latin ; and 
therefore his profession of regard was probably the effect 
of his civility rather than approbation." Now, nothing is 
better known of Boileau than that he was singularly spar- 

ioing of compliments. We do not remember that either 
friendship or fear ever induced him to bestow praise on 
any composition which he did not approve. On literary 
questions, his caustic, disdainful, and self-confident spirit 
rebelled against that authority to which everything else 

15 in France bowed down. He had the spirit to tell Lewis 
the Fourteenth firmly and even rudely, that his Majesty 
knew nothing about poetry, and admired verses which 
were detestable. What was there in Addison's position 
that could induce the satirist, whose stern and fastidious 

20 temper had been the dread of two generations, to turn 
sycophant for the first and last time ? Nor was Boileau's 
contempt of modern Latin either injudicious or peevish. 
He thought, indeed, that no poem of the first order 
would ever be written in a dead language. And did he 

25 think amiss ? Has not the experience of centuries con- 
firmed his opinion? Boileau also thought it probable 
that, in the best modern Latin, a writer of the Augustan 
age would have detected ludicrous improprieties. And 
who can think otherwise? What modern scholar can 

30 honestly declare that he sees the smallest impurity in the 
style of Livy ? Yet is it not certain that, in the style of 



24 ADDISON. 

Livy, Pollio, whose taste had been formed on the banks 
of the Tiber, detected the inelegant idiom of the Po? 
Has any modern scholar understood Latin better than 
Frederic the Great understood French? Yet is it not 
notorious that Frederic the Great, after reading, speaking, 5 
writing French, and nothing but French, during more 
than half a century, after unlearning his mother tongue 
in order to learn French, after living familiarly during 
many years with French associates, could not, to the last, 
compose in French, without imminent risk of committing 10 
some mistake which would have moved a smile in the 
literary circles of Paris? Do we believe that Erasmus 
and Fracastorius wrote Latin as well as Dr. Robertson 
and Sir Walter Scott wrote English ? And are there not 
in the Dissertation on India, the last of Dr. Robertson's 15 
works, in Waverley, in Marmion, Scotticisms at which a 
London apprentice would laugh? But does it follow, 
because we think thus, that we can find nothing to ad- 
mire in the noble alcaics of Gray, or in the playful elegi- 
acs of Vincent Bourne ? Surely not. Nor was Boileau 20 
so ignorant or tasteless as to be incapable of appreciat- 
ing good modern Latin. In the very letter to which 
Johnson alludes, Boileau says, " Ne croyez pas pourtant 
que je veuille par la blamer les vers Latins que vous 
m'avez envoy£s d'un de vos illustres academiciens. Je25 
les ai trouves fort beaux, et dignes de Vida° et de San- 
azar,° mais non pas d'Horace et de Virgile. " Several 
poems, in modern Latin, have been praised by Boileau 
quite as liberally as it was his habit to praise anything. 
He says, for example, of the Pere Fraguier's epigrams, 3° 
that Catullus seems to have come to life again. But 



ADDISON. 25 

the best proof that Boileau did not fee. the undiscerning 
contempt for modern Latin verses which has been im- 
puted to him, is, that he wrote and published Latin 
verses in several metres. Indeed it happens, curiously 
5 enough, that the most severe censure ever pronounced 
by him on modern Latin is conveyed in Latin hexame- 
ters. We allude to the fragment which begins — 

"Quid numeris iterum me balbutire Latinis, 
Longe Alpes citra natum de patre Sicambro, 
10 Musa, jubes? " 1 

32. For these reasons we feel assured that the praise 
which Boileau bestowed on the Machined Gesticulantes 2 
and the Gerano-PygmtBomachia, 2 was sincere. He Validit of 
certainly opened himself to Addison with a free- Boileau's 

15 dom which was a sure indication of esteem. Lit- cntlclsm - 
erature was the chief subject of conversation. The old 
man talked on his favourite theme much and well, indeed, 
as his young hearer thought, incomparably well. Boileau 
had undoubtedly some of the qualities of a great critic. 

20 He wanted imagination ; but he had strong sense. His 
literary code was formed on narrow principles ; but in 
applying it, he showed great judgment and penetration. 
In mere style, abstracted from the ideas of which style is 
the garb, his taste was excellent. He was weli acquainted 

25 with the great Greek writers ; and, though unable fully 
to appreciate their creative genius, admired the majestic 
simplicity of their manner, and had learned from them 
to despise bombast and tinsel. It is easy, we think, to 
discover, in the Spectator 3 and the Guardian, 3 traces of 

1 Note, p. 113. 2 See List of Addison's Works, p. xxxi. 

3 See List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv. 



26 . ADDISON. 

the influence, in part salutary and in part pernicious, 
which the mind of Boileau had on the mind of Addison. 

33. While Addison was at Paris, an event took place 
which made that capital a disagreeable residence for an Eng- 
lishman and a Whig. Charles, second of the name, 5 

French ° ' ' J 

political King of Spain, died, and bequeathed his domin- 
condmons j ons t0 philip Duke of Anion, a younger son of the 

in 1700. 

Dauphin. The King of France, in direct violation 
of his engagements both with Great Britain and with the 
States General, accepted the bequest on behalf of his grand- 10 
son. The House of Bourbon was at the summit of human 
grandeur. England had been outwitted, and found her- 
self in a situation at once degrading and perilous. 1 The 
people of France, not presaging the calamities by which 
they were destined to expiate the perfidy of their sov- 15 
ereign, went mad with pride and delight. Every man 
looked as if a great estate had just been left him. "The 
French conversation," said Addison, " begins to grow 
insupportable ; that which was before the vainest nation 
in the world is now worse than ever." Sick of the arro- 20 
gant exultation of the Parisians, and probably foreseeing 
that the peace between France and England could not 
be of long duration, he set of! for Italy. 

34. In December, 1 700,* he embarked at Marseilles. 
As he glided along the Ligurian coast, he was delighted 25 

1 Int., pp. xxi-xxiii. 

* It is strange that Addison should, in the first line of his travels, 
have misdated his departure from Marseilles by a whole year, and still 
more strange that this slip of the pen, which throws the whole narrative 
into inextricable confusion, should have been repeated in a succession 
of editions, and never detected by Tickell or by Hurd. 

— Macau lay. 



Voyage 
alono- the 



ADDISON. 27 

by the sight of myrtles and olive trees, which retained their 
verdure under the winter solstice. Soon, however, he en- 
countered one of the black storms of the Mediter- 
ranean. The captain of the ship gave up all for 
5 lost, and confessed himself to a capuchin who hap- coast of 
pened to be on board. The English heretic, in the ay " 
meantime, fortified himself against the terrors of death 
with devotions of a very different kind. How strong an 
impression this perilous voyage made on him, appears 

10 from the ode, " How are thy servants blest, O Lord ! nl 
which was long after published in the Spectator. After 
some days of discomfort and danger, Addison was glad 
to land at Savona, and to make his way, over mountains 
where no road had yet been hewn out by art, to the city 

15 of Genoa. 

35. At Genoa, still ruled by her own Doge, and by 
the nobles whose names were inscribed on her Book of 
Gold, Addison made a short stay. He admired the Genoa and 
narrow streets overhung by long lines of towering Venice; 

20 palaces, the walls rich with frescoes, the gorgeous temple 
of the Annunciation, and the tapestries whereon were 
recorded the long glories of the House of Doria.° Thence 
he hastened to Milan, where he contemplated the Gothic 
magnificence of the cathedral with more wonder than 

25 pleasure. He passed Lake Benacus while a gale was 
blowing, and saw the waves raging as they raged when 
Virgil looked upon them. 2 At Venice, then the gayest 
spot in Europe, the traveller spent the Carnival, the 
gayest season of the year, in the midst of masques, 

30 dances, and serenades. Here he was at once diverted 

1 Note, p. 113 +. 2 Georgics, ii, 160. 



28 ADDISON. 

and provoked, by the absurd dramatic pieces which then 
disgraced the Italian stage. To one of those pieces, 
however, he was indebted for a valuable hint. He was 
present when a ridiculous play on the death of Cato was 
performed. Cato, it seems, was in love with a daughter 5 
of Scipio. The lady had given her heart to Caesar. The 
rejected lover determined to destroy himself. He ap- 
peared seated in his library, a dagger in his hand, a 
Plutarch and a Tasso before him ; and, in this position, 
he pronounced a soliloquy before he struck the blow. 
We are surprised that so remarkable a circumstance as 
this should have escaped the notice of all Addison's 
biographers. There cannot, we conceive, be the smallest 
doubt that this scene, in spite of its absurdities and anach- 
ronisms, struck the traveller's imagination, and suggested 15 
to him the thought of bringing Cato on the English stage. 
It is well known that about this time he began his tragedy, 
and that he finished the first four acts before he returned 
to England. 

36. On his way from Venice to Rome, he was drawn 20 
some miles out of the beaten road by a wish to see the 
San smallest independent state in Europe. 1 On a rock 

Marino ; where the snow still lay, though the Italian spring was 
now far advanced, was perched the little fortress of San 
Marino. The roads which led to the secluded town were 25 
so bad that few travellers had ever visited it, and none 
had ever published an account of it. Addison could not 
suppress a good-natured smile at the simple manners and 
institutions of this singular community. But he observed, 
with the exultation of a Whig, that the rude mountain 30 
1 Note, p. 115. 



ADDISON. 29 

tract which formed the territory of the republic swarmed 
with an honest, healthy, and contented peasantry, while 
the rich plain which surrounded the metropolis of civil 
and spiritual tyranny was scarcely less desolate than the 
5 uncleared wilds of America. 

37. At Rome Addison remained on his first visit only 
long enough to catch a glimpse of St. Peter's and of the 
Pantheon. His haste is the more extraordinary 
because the Holy Week was close at hand. He 

10 has given no hint which can enable us to pronounce why 
he chose to fly from a spectacle which every year allures 
from distant regions persons of far less taste and sensibil- 
ity than his. Possibly, travelling, as he did, at the charge 
of a Government distinguished by its enmity to the 

15 Church of Rome, he may have thought that it would be 
imprudent in him to assist at the most magnificent rite of 
that Church. Many eyes would be upon him ; and he 
might find it difficult to behave in such a manner as to 
give offence neither to his patrons in England, nor to 

20 those among whom he resided. Whatever his motives 
may have been, he turned his back on the most august 
and affecting ceremony which is known among men, and 
posted along the Appian way to Naples. 

38. Naples was then destitute of what are now, per- 
25 haps, its chief attractions. The lovely bay and the awful 

mountain were indeed there. But a farmhouse 
stood on the theatre of Herculaneum, and rows of ap e " 
vines grew over the streets of Pompeii. The temples 
of Paestum had not indeed been hidden from the eye 
30 of man by any great convulsion f>{ nature ; but, strange 
to say, their existence was a secret even to artists and 



30 ADDISON. 

antiquaries. Though situated within a few hours' journey 
of a great capital, where Salvator had not long before 
painted, and where Vico was then lecturing, those noble 
remains were as little known to Europe as the ruined 
cities overgrown by the forests of Yucatan. What was 5 
to be seen at Naples, Addison saw. He climbed Vesu- 
vius, explored the tunnel of Posilipo, and wandered 
among the vines and almond trees of Capreae. But 
neither the wonders of nature, nor those of art, could so 
occupy his attention as to prevent him from noticing, 10 
though cursorily, the abuses of the government and the 
misery of the people. The great kingdom which had 
just descended to Philip the Fifth, 1 was in a state of 
paralytic dotage. Even Castile and Aragon were sunk 
in wretchedness. Yet, compared with the Italian de- 15 
pendencies of the Spanish crown, Castile and Aragon 
might be called prosperous. It is clear that all the ob- 
servations which Addison made in Italy tended to con- 
firm him in the political opinions which he had adopted 
at home. To the last, he always spoke of foreign travel 20 
as the best cure for Jacobitism. 2 In his Freeholder;' the 
Tory foxhunter asks what travelling is good for, except 
to teach a man to jabber French, and to talk against 
passive obedience. 

39. From Naples, Addison returned to Rome by sea, 25 
along the coast which his favourite Virgil had celebrated. 
, The felucca passed the headland where the oar 

second 1 

visit to and trumpet were placed by the Trojan adven- 

Rome; turers on the tomb of Misenus, and anchored at 

night under the shelf er of the fabled promontory of 30 

1 Int., p. xxii, top. 2/(5., p. xx, footnote. 3 See List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv. 



ADDISON. 31 

Circe. The voyage ended in the Tiber, still overhung 
with dark verdure, and still turbid with yellow sand, as 
when it met the eyes of ^neas. From the ruined port 
of Ostia, the stranger hurried to Rome ; and at Rome 
5 he remained during those hot and sickly months, when, 
even in the Augustan age, all who could make their 
escape fled from mad dogs and from streets black with 
funerals, to gather the first figs of the season in the 
country. It is probable that, when he, long after, poured 

10 forth in verse his gratitude to the Providence which had 
enabled him to breathe unhurt in tainted air, he was think- 
ing of the August and.September which he passed at Rome. 
40. It was not till the latter end of October that he tore 
himself away from the masterpieces of ancient and Florence; 

15 modern art which are collected in the city so long the A1 P S - 
the mistress of the world. He then journeyed northward, 
passed through Sienna, and for a moment forgot his 
prejudices in favour of classic architecture as he looked on 
the magnificent cathedral. At Florence he spent some 

20 days with the Duke of Shrewsbury, who, cloyed with the 
pleasures of ambition, and impatient of its pains, fearing 
both parties, and loving neither, had determined to hide 
in an Italian retreat talents and accomplishments which, 
if they had been united with fixed principles and civil 

25 courage, might have made him the foremost man of his 
age. 1 These days, we are told, passed pleasantly ; and 
we can easily believe it. For Addison was a delightful 
companion when he was at his ease ; and the Duke, 
though he seldom forgot that he was a Talbot, had the 

30 invaluable art of putting at ease all who came near him. 

1 See Int., p. xxiv, for his services in the crisis at Anne's death. 



32 ADDISON. 

41. Addison gave some time to Florence, and espe- 
cially to the sculptures in the Museum, 1 which he preferred 

T ,. even to those of the Vatican. He then pursued his 

Impending x 

political journey through a country in which the ravages of 
changes. ^ e j agt war were S {]\\ discernible, and in which all 5 
men were looking forward with dread to a still fiercer con- 
flict. Eugene had already descended from the Rhgetian 
Alps, to dispute with Catinat the rich plain of Lombardy. 
The faithless ruler of Savoy was still reckoned among the 
allies of Lewis. 2 England had not yet actually declared 10 
war against France ; but Manchester had left Paris ; and 
the negotiations which produced the Grand Alliance 3 
against the House of Bourbon were in progress. Under 
such circumstances, it was desirable for an English trav- 
eller to reach neutral ground without delay. Addison 15 
resolved to cross Mont Cenis.° It was December ; and 
the road was very different from that which now reminds 
the stranger of the power and genius of Napoleon. The 
winter, however, was mild ; and the passage was, for 
those times, easy. To this journey Addison alluded 20 
when, in the ode which we have already quoted, he said 
that for him the Divine goodness had warmed the hoary 
Alpine hills. 

42. It was in the midst of the eternal snow that he 
composed his Epistle to his friend Montague, now Lord 25 

Th Ei>' tl Halifax. That Epistle, once widely renowned, is 

to Mon- now known only to curious readers, and will hardly 

tague; j^ considered by those to whom it is known as in 

any perceptible degree heightening Addison's fame. It 

is, however, decidedly superior to any English composi- 30 

1 Note, p. 115. 2 Index, " Victor Amadeus II." 3 Int., p. xxii, top. 



ADDISON. 33 

tion which he had previously published. Nay, we think 
it quite as good as any poem in heroic metre which 
appeared during the interval between the death of Dryden 
and the publication of the Essay on Criticism. 1 It con- 
5 tains passages as good as the second-rate passages of 
Pope, and would have added to the reputation of Par- 
nell° or Prior. ) 

43. But, whatever be the literary merits or defects of 
the Epistle, it undoubtedly does honour to the principles 

10 and spirit of the author. Halifax had now nothing j ts signifi- 
to give. He had fallen from power, had been cance. 
held up to obloquy, had been impeached by the House 
of Commons, and, though his Peers had dismissed the 
impeachment, had, as it seemed, little chance of ever 

15 again filling high office. The Epistle, written at such a 
time, is one among many proofs that there was no mix- 
ture of cowardice or meanness in the suavity and moder- 
ation which distinguished Addison from all the other 
public men of those stormy times. 

20 44. At Geneva, the traveller learned that a partial 
change of ministry had taken place in England, and that 
the Earl of Manchester had become Secretary of change of 
State. Manchester exerted himself to serve his young prospects, 
friend. It was thought advisable that an English agent 

25 should be near the person of Eugene in Italy; and 
Addison, whose diplomatic education was now finished, 
was the man selected. He was preparing to enter on 
his honourable functions, when all his prospects were for 
a time darkened by the death of William the Third. 

30 45. Anne had long felt a strong aversion, personal, 

1 Note, p. 115. 



34 ADDISON. 

political, and religious, to the Whig party. That aversion 
appeared in the first measures of her reign. Manchester 
and the was deprived of the seals, after he had held them 
cause of only a few weeks. Neither Somers nor Halifax was 
the change. sworn f t i ie p r i vv Council. 1 Addison shared 5 
the fate of his three patrons. His hopes of employment 
in the public service were at an end ; his pension was 
stopped ; and it was necessary for him to support him- 
self by his own exertions. He became tutor to a young 
English traveller, and appears to have rambled with his 10 
pupil over a great part of Switzerland and Germany. At 
this time he wrote his pleasing treatise on Medals. 2 It 
was not published till after his death ; but several dis- 
tinguished scholars saw the manuscript, and gave just 
praise to the grace of the style, and to the learning and 15 
ingenuity evinced by the quotations. 

46. From Germany Addison repaired to Holland, 
where he learned the melancholy news of his father's death. 

Return to After passing some months in the United Provinces, 
England. he returned about the close of the year 1703 to 20 
England. He was there cordially received by his friends, 
and introduced by them into the Kit Cat Club, 3 a society 
in which were collected all the various talents and accom- 
plishments which then gave lustre to the Whig party. 

47. Addison was, during some months after his return 25 
from the Continent, hard pressed by pecuniary difficul- 
ties. But it was soon in the power of his noble patrons 
to serve him effectually. A political change, silent and 

1 Int., p. xiv. 2 See List of Addison's Works, p. xxxii. 

3 Index, " Clubs." 



ADDISON. 35 

gradual, but of the highest importance, was in daily 
progress. The accession of Anne had been hailed by the 
Tories with transports of joy and hope ; and for a Apparent]y 
time it seemed that the Whigs had fallen never to rise gloomy 

5 again. The throne was surrounded by men sup- out °° ' 
posed to be attached to the prerogative and to the 
Church ; and among these none stood so high in the 
favour of the Sovereign as the Lord Treasurer Godolphin 
and the Captain General Marlborough. 

IO 48. The country gentlemen and country clergymen had 
fully expected that the policy of these ministers would 
be directly opposed to that which had been almost except for 
constantly followed by William ; that the landed the Tories, 
interest would be favoured at the expense of trade ; that 

15 no addition would be made to the funded debt; that the 
privileges conceded to Dissenters by the late King would 
be curtailed, if not withdrawn ; that the war with France, 
if there must be such a war, would, on our part, be almost 
entirely naval ; and that the Government would avoid 

20 close connections with foreign powers, and, above all, 
with Holland. 

49. But the country gentlemen and country clergymen 
were fated to be deceived, not for the last time. The 
prejudices and passions which raged without con- 

25 trol in vicarages, in cathedral closes, and in the situation 
manor-houses of foxhunting squires, were not shared favorable to 
by the chiefs of the ministry. Those statesmen 
saw that it was both for the public interest, and for their 
own interest, to adopt a Whig policy, at least as respected 

30 the alliances of the country and the conduct of the war. 
•But, if the foreign policy of the Whigs were adopted, it 



36 ADDISON. 

was impossible to abstain from adopting also their finan- 
cial policy. The natural consequences followed. The 
rigid Tories were alienated from the Government. The 
votes of the Whigs became necessary to it. The votes 
of the Whigs could be secured only by further conces- 5 
sions ; and further concessions the Queen was induced 
to make. 

50. At the beginning of the year 1704, the state of 
parties bore a close analogy to the state of parties in 1826. 

In 1826, as in 1704, there was a Tory ministry di- 10 

parties in vided into two hostile sections. The position of Mr. 

1704 and in Canning and his friends in 1826 corresponded to 
that which Marlborough and Godolphin occupied 
in 1 704. Nottingham and Jersey were, in 1 704, what Lord 
Eldon° and Lord Westmoreland were in 1826. The Whigs 15 
of 1704 were in a situation resembling that in which the 
Whigs of 1826 stood. In 1704, Somers,° Halifax, Sun- 
derland, Cowper, were not in office. There was no 
avowed coalition between them and the moderate Tories. 
It is probable that no direct communication tending to 20 
such a coalition had yet taken place ; yet all men saw 
that such a coalition was inevitable, nay, that it was 
already half formed. 1 Such, or nearly such, was the 
state of things when tidings arrived of the great battle 
fought at Blenheim on the 13th August, 1704. By the 25 
Whigs the news was hailed with transports of joy and 
pride. No fault, no cause of quarrel, could be remem- 
bered by them against the commander whose genius 
had, in one day, changed the face of Europe, saved the 
Imperial throne, humbled the House of Bourbon, and 30 

1 For full explanation of HIT 49, 50, see Int., pp. xxvii, xxviii. 



ADDISON. 37 

secured the Act of Settlement 1 against foreign hostility. 
The feeling of the Tories was very different. They could 
not indeed, without imprudence, openly express regret 
at an event so glorious to their country ; but their con- 
5 gratulations were so cold and sullen as to give deep dis- 
gust to the victorious general and his friends. 

51. Godolphin was not a reading man. Whatever 
time he could spare from business he was in the habit of 
spending at Newmarket or at the card table. But Whi ne , 

10 he was not absolutely indifferent to poetry; and he of a literary 
was too intelligent an observer not to perceive that cham P lon - 
literature was a formidable engine of political warfare, 
and that the great Whig leaders had strengthened their 
party, and raised their character, by extending a liberal 

15 and judicious patronage to good writers. He was morti- 
fied, and not without reason, by the exceeding badness 
of the poems which appeared in honour of the battle of 
Blenheim. One of those poems has been rescued from 
oblivion by the exquisite absurdity of three lines. 

20 " Think of two thousand gentlemen at least, 

And each man mounted on his capering beast; 
Into the Danube they were pushed by shoals." 

5 2 . Where to procure better verses the Treasurer did not 
know. He understood how to negotiate a loan, or remit a 

25 subsidy : he was also well versed in the history of The j 
running horses and fighting cocks ; but his acquaint- tion of 
ance among the poets was very small. He con- Addlson - 
suited Halifax ; but Halifax affected to decline the 
office of adviser. He had, he said, done his best, when 

30 he had power, to encourage men whose abilities and 

1 Note, p. 115, and Int., p. xviii. 



3 8 ADDISON. 

acquirements might do honour to their country. Those 
times were over. Other maxims had prevailed. Merit 
was suffered to pine in obscurity ; and the public money 
was squandered on the undeserving. " I do know," he 
added, " a gentleman who would celebrate the battle in 5 
a manner worthy of the subject; but I will not name 
him." Godolphin, who was expert at the soft answer 
which turneth away wrath, and who was under the neces- 
sity of paying court to the Whigs, gently replied that 
there was too much ground for Halifax's complaints, 10 
but that what was amiss should in time be rectified, and 
that in the meantime the services of a man such as 
Halifax had described should be liberally rewarded. 
Halifax then mentioned Addison, but, mindful of the 
dignity as well as of the pecuniary interest of his friend, 15 
insisted that the Ministep should apply in the most cour- 
teous manner to Addison himself; and this Godolphin 
promised to do. 

53. Addison then occupied a garret up three pair of 
stairs, over a small shop in the Haymarket. In this 20 
humble lodging he was surprised, on the morning 
response, which followed the conversation between Godolphin 
and his an d Halifax, by a visit from no less a person than the 
Right Honourable Henry Boyle, then Chancellor of 
the Exchequer, and afterwards Lord Carleton. This high- 25 
born minister had been sent by the Lord Treasurer as 
ambassador to the needy poet. Addison readily under- 
took the proposed task, a task which, to so good a Whig, 
was probably a pleasure. When the poem was little more 
than half finished, he showed it to Godolphin, who was 30 
delighted with it, and particularly with the famous simili- 



ADDISON. 39 

tude of the Angel. 1 Addison was instantly appointed to 
a Commissionership worth about two hundred pounds a 
year, and was assured that this appointment was only an 
earnest of greater favours. 
5 54. The Campaign 2 came forth, and was as much ad- 
mired by the public as by the Minister. It pleases us less 
on the whole than the Epistle to Halifax. 2 Yet it The Caw- 
undoubtedly ranks high among the poems which dis- 
appeared during the interval between the death of Dry- 

10 den and the dawn of Pope's genius. The chief merit of 
the Campaign, we think, is that which was noticed by 
Johnson, the manly and rational rejection of fiction. 
The first great poet whose works have come down to us 
sang of war long before war became a science or a trade. 

15 If, in his time, there was enmity between two little 
Greek towns, each poured forth its crowd of citizens, 
ignorant of discipline, and armed with implements of 
labour rudely turned into weapons. On each side ap- 
peared conspicuous a few chiefs, whose wealth had ena- 

20 bled them to procure good armour, horses, and chariots, 
and whose leisure had enabled them to practise military 
exercises. One such chief, if he were a man of great 
strength, agility, and courage, would probably be more 
formidable than twenty common men ; and the force and 

25 dexterity with which he flung his spear might have no 
inconsiderable share in deciding the event of the day. 
Such were probably the battles with which Homer was 
familiar. But Homer related the actions of men of a 
former generation, of men who sprang from the Gods, 

30 and communed with the Gods face to face, of men, one 
1 Note, p. 115. 2 See List of Addison's Works, p. xxxii. 



40 



ADDISON 



of whom could with ease hurl rocks which two sturdy 
hinds of a later period would be unable even to lift. He 
therefore naturally represented their martial exploits as 
resembling in kind, but far surpassing in magnitude, those 
of the stoutest and most expert combatants of his own 5 
age. Achilles, clad in celestial armour, drawn by celes- 
tial coursers, grasping the spear which none but himself 
could raise, driving all Troy and Lycia before him, and 
choking Scamander with dead, was only a magnificent 
exaggeration of the real hero, who, strong, fearless, accus- 10 
tomed to the use of weapons, guarded by a shield and 
helmet of the best Sidonian fabric, and whirled along by 
horses of Thessalian breed, struck down with his own 
right arm foe after foe. In all rude societies similar 
notions are found. There are at this day countries 15 
where the Lifeguardsman Shaw° would be considered as 
a much greater warrior than the Duke of Wellington. 
Buonaparte loved to describe the astonishment with 
which the Mamelukes looked at his diminutive figure. 
Mourad Bey, distinguished above all his fellows by his 20 
bodily strength, and by the skill with which he managed 
his horse and his sabre, could not believe that a man who 
was scarcely five feet high, and rode like a butcher, could 
be the greatest soldier in Europe. 

55. Homer's descriptions of war had therefore as much 25 

truth as poetry requires. But truth was altogether wanting 

to the performances of those who, writing about bat- 

wkh P other tles which had scarcely anything in common with 

battle- the battles of his times, servilely imitated his man- 

pi " ner. The folly of Silius Italicus, in particular, is 30 

positively nauseous. He undertook to record in verse 



ADDISON. 41 

the vicissitudes of a great struggle between generals of 
the first order : and his narrative is made up of the hid- 
eous wounds which these generals inflicted with their own 
hands. Asdrubal flings a spear which grazes the shoul- 
5 der of the consul Nero ; but Nero sends his spear into 
Asdrubal's side. Fabius slays Thuris and Butes and 
Maris and Arses, and the longhaired Adherbes, and 
the gigantic Thylis, and Sapharus and Monsesus, and the 
trumpeter Morinus. Hannibal runs Perusinus through 
10 the groin with a stake, and breaks the backbone of Tele- 
sinus with a huge stone. This detestable fashion was 
copied in modern times, and continued to prevail down 
to the age of Addison. Several versifiers had described 
William turning thousands to flight by his single prowess, 
I5 and dyeing the Boyne with Irish blood. Nay, so estima- 
ble a writer as John Philips, the author of the Splendid 
Shilling, represented Marlborough as having won the 
battle of Blenheim merely by strength of muscle and 
skill in fence. The following lines may serve as an 
20 example : — 

"Churchill, viewing where 
The violence of Tallard ° most prevailed, 
Came to oppose his slaughtering arm. With speed 
Precipitate he rode, urging his way 
25 O'er hills of gasping heroes, and fallen steeds 

Rolling in death. Destruction, grim with blood, 
Attends his furious course. Around his head 
The glowing balls play innocent, while he 
With dire impetuous sway deals fatal blows 
3° Among the flying Gauls. In Gallic blood 

He dyes his reeking sword, and strews the ground 
With headless ranks. What can they do? Or how 
Withstand his wide-destroying sword?" 



42 ADDISON. 

56. Addison, with excellent sense and taste, departed 
from this ridiculous fashion. He reserved his praise for 

Superiority ^ e Q uant i es which made Marlborough truly great, 
of Addi- energy, sagacity, military science. But, above all, 
son's work. the poet exto vi e( j t h e firmness of that mind which, 5 
in the midst of confusion, uproar, and slaughter, ex- 
amined and disposed every thing with the serene wisdom 
of a higher intelligence. 

57. Here it was that he introduced the famous com- 
parison of Marlborough to an Angel guiding the whirl- 10 

Its most wind. We will not dispute the general justice of 
famous Johnson's remarks on this passage. But we must 

passage. . J . ... . 

point out one circumstance which appears to have 
escaped all the critics. The extraordinary effect which 
this simile produced when it first appeared, and which 15 
to the following generation seemed inexplicable, is 
doubtless to be chiefly attributed to a line which most 
readers now regard as a feeble parenthesis, 

" Such as, of late, o'er pale Britannia pass'd." 

Addison spoke, not of a storm, but of the storm. The 2 o 
great tempest of November 1703, the only tempest which 
in our latitude has equalled the rage of a tropical hurri- 
cane, had left a dreadful recollection in the minds of all 
men. No other tempest was ever in this country the 
occasion of a parliamentary address or of a public fast. 25 
Whole fleets had been cast away. Large mansions had 
been blown down. One Prelate had been buried beneath 
the ruins of his palace. London and Bristol had pre- 
sented the appearance of cities just sacked. Hundreds 
of families were still in mourning. The prostrate trunks 30 




DUKE OF MARLBORO. 



ADDISON. 43 

of large trees, and the ruins of houses, still attested, in all 
the southern counties, the fury of the blast. The popu- 
larity which the simile of the angel enjoyed among Addi- 
son's contemporaries, has always seemed to us to be a 
5 remarkable instance of the advantages which, in rhetoric 
and poetry, the particular has over the general. 

58. Soon after the Campaign, was published Addi- 
son's Narrative of his Travels in Italy. The first effect 
produced by this Narrative was disappointment. 

10 The crowd of readers who expected politics and wm k- 
scandal, speculations on the projects of Victor Ama- Travels in 
deus,° and anecdotes about the jollities of convents 
and the amours of cardinals and nuns, were confounded 
by finding that the writer's mind was much more occu- 

15 pied by the war between the Trojans and Rutulians than 
by the war between France and Austria ; and that he 
seemed to have heard no scandal of later date than the 
gallantries of the Empress Faustina. In time, however, 
the judgment of the many was overruled by that of the 

20 few ; and, before the book was reprinted, it was so 
eagerly sought that it sold for five times the original 
price. It is still read with pleasure : the style is pure 
and flowing ; the classical quotations and allusions are nu- 
merous and happy ; and we are now and then charmed by 

25 that singularly humane and delicate humour in which Addi- 
son excelled all men. Yet this agreeable work, even when 
considered merely as the history of a literary tour, may 
justly be censured on account of its faults of omission. 
We have already said that, though rich in extracts from 

30 the Latin poets, it contains scarcely any references to 
the Latin orators and historians. We must add, that it 



44 ADDISON. 

contains little, or rather no information, respecting the 
history and literature of modern Italy. To the best of 
our remembrance, Addison does not mention Dante, 
Petrarch, Boccaccio, Boiardo, Berni,° Lorenzo de' Med- 
ici, or Machiavelli. He coldly tells us that at Ferrara 5 
he saw the tomb of Ariosto, and that at Venice he heard 
the gondoliers sing verses of Tasso. But for Tasso and 
Ariosto he cared far less than for Valerius Flaccus and 
Sidonius Apollinaris. The gentle flow of the Ticin brings 
a line of Silius to his mind. The sulphurous stream of 10 
Albula suggests to him several passages of Martial. 
But he has not a word to say of the illustrious dead of 
Santa Croce ; he crosses the wood of Ravenna without 
recollecting the Spectre Huntsman, and wanders up and 
down Rimini without one thought of Francesca. At 15 
Paris he had eagerly sought an introduction to Boileau ; but 
he seems not to have been at all aware that at Florence 
he was in the vicinity of a poet with whom Boileau could 
not sustain a comparison, of the greatest lyric poet of 
modern times, Vincenzio Filicaja. This is the more 20 
remarkable, because Filicaja was the favourite poet of 
the accomplished Somers, under whose protection Addi- 
son travelled, and to whom the account of the Travels 
is dedicated. The truth is, that Addison knew little, and 
cared less, about the literature of modern Italy. His 25 
favourite models were Latin. His favourite critics were 
French. Half the Tuscan poetry that he had read 
seemed to him monstrous, and half tawdry. 

59. His Travels were followed by the lively Opera of 
Rosamond. This piece was ill set to music, and therefore 30 
failed on the stage, but it completely succeeded in print, 



ADDISON. 45 

and is indeed excellent in its kind. The smoothness 
with which the verses glide, and the elasticity with which 
they bound, is, to our ears at least, very pleasing. 
We are inclined to think that if Addison had left ma ticwork' 
5 heroic couplets to Pope, and blank verse to Rowe, opera of 
and had employed himself in writing airy and 
spirited songs, his reputation as a poet would have stood 
far higher than it now does. Some years after his death, 
Rosamond was set to new music by Doctor Arne,° and 

10 was performed with complete success. Several passages 
long retained their popularity, and were daily sung, dur- 
ing the latter part of George the Second's reign, at all 
the harpsichords in England. 

60. While Addison thus amused himself, his prospects, 

15 and the prospects of his party, were constantly becoming 
brighter and brighter. In the spring of 170s the 

• r , r , . . \ , Favorable 

ministers were freed from the restraint imposed by political 
a House of Commons in which Tories of the most conditions 
perverse class had the ascendency. The elections 

20 were favourable to the Whigs. The coalition which had 
been tacitly and gradually formed was now openly avowed. 
The Great Seal was given to Cowper. Somers and 
Halifax were sworn of the Council. Halifax was sent 
in the following year to carry the decorations of the 

25 order of the Garter to the Electoral Prince of Hanover, 1 
and was accompanied on his honourable mission by Addi- 
son, who had just been made Undersecretary of State. 
The Secretary of State under whom Addison first served 
was Sir Charles Hedges, a Tory. But Hedges was soon 

30 dismissed to make room for the most vehement of Whigs, 

1 Son of Sophia; see Int., p. xviii, bottom. 



46 ADDISON. 

Charles, Earl of Sunderland. In every department of 
the state, indeed, the High Churchmen were compelled 
to give place to their opponents. At the close of 1707, 
the Tories who still remained in office strove to rally, 
with' Harley at their head. But the attempt, though 5 
favoured by the Queen, who had always been a Tory at 
heart, and who had now quarrelled with the Duchess of 
Marlborough, was unsuccessful. The time was not yet. 
The Captain General was at the height of popularity and 
glory. The Low Church party had a majority in Parlia- 10 
ment. The country squires and rectors, though occa- 
sionally uttering a savage growl, were for the most part 
in a state of torpor, which lasted till they were roused 
into activity, and indeed into madness, by the prosecu- 
tion of Sacheverell. 1 Harley and his adherents were 15 
compelled to retire. The victory of the Whigs was com- 
plete. At the general election of 1708, their strength in 
the House of Commons became irresistible ; and before 
the end of that year, Somers was made Lord President 
of the Council, and Wharton Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 20 

61. Addison sat for Malmsbury in the House of Com- 
mons which was elected in 1 708. But the House of Com- 
Poiiticai mons was not the field for him. The bashfulness 
advance- f hi s nature made his wit and eloquence useless in 

ment due to n , TT . . ., . . 

literary debate. He once rose, but could not overcome his 25 
services. diffidence, and ever after remained silent. Nobody 
can think it strange that a great writer should fail as a 
speaker. But many, probably, will think it strange that 
Addison's failure as a speaker should have had no unfavour- 
able effect on his success as a politician. 

1 Int., p. xxiii. 



ADDISON. 47 

man of high rank and great fortune might, though speaking 
very little and very ill, hold a considerable post. But it 
would now be inconceivable that a mere adventurer, a 
man who, when out of office, must live by his pen, should 

5 in a few years become successively Undersecretary of 
State, chief Secretary for Ireland, and Secretary of State, 
without some oratorical talent. Addison, without high 
birth, and with little property, rose to a post which 
Dukes, the heads of the great houses of Talbot, Russell, 

10 and Bentinck, have thought it an honour to fill. With- 
out opening his lips in debate, he rose to a post, the 
highest that Chatham or Fox° ever reached. And this 
he did before he had been nine years in Parliament. 
We must look for the explanation of this seeming miracle 

15 to the peculiar circumstances in which that generation 
was placed. During the interval which elapsed between 
the time when the Censorship of the Press ceased, and 
the time when parliamentary proceedings began to be 
freely reported, literary talents were, to a public man, of 

20 much more importance, and oratorical talents of much 
less importance, than in our time. At present, the best 
way of giving rapid and wide publicity to a fact or an 
argument is to introduce that fact or argument into a 
speech made in Parliament. If a political tract were to 

25 appear superior to the Conduct of the Allies, 1 or to the 
best numbers of the Freeholder, 1 the circulation of such a 
tract would be languid indeed when compared with the 
circulation of every remarkable word uttered in the delib- 
erations of the legislature. A speech made in the House 

30 of Commons at four in the morning is on thirty thousand 

1 See List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv. 



48 ADDISON. 

tables before ten. A speech made on the Monday is 
read on the Wednesday by multitudes in Antrim and 
Aberdeenshire. The orator, by the help of the short- 
hand writer, has to a great extent superseded the pam- 
phleteer. It was not so in the reign of Anne. The 5 
best speech could then produce no effect except on those 
who heard it. It was only by means of the press that 
the opinion of the public without doors could be influ- 
enced ; and the opinion of the public without doors 
could not but be of the highest importance in a country 10 
governed by parliaments, and indeed at that time gov- 
erned by triennial parliaments. The pen was therefore a 
more formidable political engine than the tongue. Mr. 
Pitt l and Mr. Fox° contended only in Parliament. But 
Walpole and Pulteney, the Pitt and Fox of an earlier^ 
period, had not done half of what was necessary, when 
they sat down amidst the acclamations of the House of 
Commons. They had still to plead their cause before 
the country, and this they could only do by means of 
the press. Their works are now forgotten. But it is 20 
certain that there were in Grub° Street few more assidu- 
ous scribblers of Thoughts, Letters, Answers, Remarks, 
than these two great chiefs of parties. Pulteney, when 
leader of the Opposition, 2 and possessed of thirty thou- 
sand a year, edited the Craftsman. 3 Walpole, though 25 
not a man of literary habits, was the author of at least 
ten pamphlets, and retouched and corrected many more. 
These facts sufficiently show of how great importance 
literary assistance then was to the contending parties. 

1 Index, " Chatham." 2 Int., p. xxvi, bottom. 

3 See List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv. 



ADDISON. 49 

St. John was, certainly, in Anne's reign, the best Tory 
speaker; Co\vper° was probably the best Whig speaker. 
But it may well be doubted whether St. John did so 
much for the Tories as Swift, and whether Cowper did 
5 so much for the Whigs as Addison. When these things 
are duly considered, it will not be thought strange that 
Addison should have climbed higher in the state than 
any other Englishman has ever, by means merely of lit- 
erary talents, been able to climb. Swift would, in all 
io probability, have climbed as high, if he had not been 
encumbered by his cassock and his pudding sleeves. As 
far as the homage of the great went, Swift had as much 
of it as if he had been Lord Treasurer. 

62. To the influence which Addison derived from his 
15 literary talents was added all the influence which arises 

from character. The world, always ready to think 
the worst of needy political adventurers, was forced character. 
to make one exception. Restlessness, violence, ( a ) Hi ^ in- 
audacity, laxity of principle, are the vices ordinarily cgnty " 

20 attributed to that class of men. But faction itself could 
not deny that Addison had, through all changes of for- 
tune, been strictly faithful to his early opinions, and to 
his early friends ; that his integrity was without stain ; 
that his whole deportment indicated a fine sense of the 

25 becoming ; that, in the utmost heat of controversy, his 
zeal was tempered by a regard for truth, humanity, and 
social decorum ; that no outrage could ever provoke him 
to retaliation unworthy of a Christian and a gentleman ; 
and that his only faults were a too sensitive delicacy, and 

30 a modesty which amounted to bashfulness. 

63. He was undoubtedly one of the most popular men 



50 ADDISON. 

of his time ; and much of his popularity he owed, we 
believe, to that very timidity which his friends lamented. 
That timidity often prevented him from exhibiting his 
m His con- ta ^ ents t0 tne Dest advantage. But it propitiated 
versational Nemesis. It averted that envy which would other- 5 
talents. w j ge nave Deen excited by fame so splendid, 
and by so rapid an elevation. No man is so great a 
favourite with the public as he who is at once an object 
of admiration, of respect, and of pity ; and such were 
the feelings which Addison inspired. Those who enjoyed 10 
the privilege of hearing his familiar conversation, declared 
with one voice that it was superior even to his writings. 
The brilliant Mary Montague said, that she had known 
all the wits, and that Addison was the best company in 
the world. The malignant Pope was forced to own, that 15 
there was a charm in Addison's talk, which could be found 
nowhere else. Swift, when burning with animosity against 
the Whigs, could not but confess to Stella l that, after all, 
he had never known any associate so agreeable as Addi- 
son. Steele, an excellent judge of lively conversation, 20 
said, that the conversation of Addison was at once the 
most polite, and the most mirthful, that could be imag- 
ined ; that it was Terence and Catullus in one, height- 
ened by an exquisite something which was neither Terence 
nor Catullus, but Addison alone. Young, an excellent 25 
judge of serious conversation, said, that when Addison 
was at his ease, he went on in a noble strain of thought 
and language, so as to chain the attention of every hearer. 
Nor were Addison's great colloquial powers more admir- 
able than the courtesy and softness of heart which 30 
1 Index, " Swift," end. 



ADDISON. 51 

appeared in his conversation. At the same time, it 
would be too much to say that he was wholly devoid of 
the malice which is, perhaps, inseparable from a keen 
sense of the ludicrous. He had one habit which both 
5 Swift and Stella applauded, and which we hardly know 
how to blame. If his first attempts to set a presuming 
dunce right were ill received, he changed his tone, 
" assented with civil leer," and lured the flattered cox- 
comb deeper and deeper into absurdity. That such was 

10 his practice we should, we think, have guessed from his 
works. The Tatler's criticisms on Mr. Softly's sonnet, 1 
and the Spectator's dialogue with the politician who is so 
zealous for the honour of Lady Q — p — t — s, 1 are excellent 
specimens of this innocent mischief. 

15 64. Such were Addison's talents for conversation. 
But his rare gifts were not exhibited to crowds or to 
strangers. As soon as he entered a large company, , . Ris re 
as soon as he saw an unknown face, his lips were tiring dis- 
sealed, and his manners became constrained. None P OSItlon - 

20 who met him only in great assemblies would have been 
able to believe that he was the same man who had often 
kept a few friends listening and laughing round a table, 
from the time when the play ended, till the clock of 
St. Paul's in Covent Garden struck four. Yet, even at 

25 such a table, he was not seen to the best advantage. To 
enjoy his conversation in the highest perfection, it was nec- 
essary to be alone with him, and to hear him, in his own 
phrase, think aloud. "There is no such thing," he used 
to say, "as real conversation, but between two persons." 

30 65. This timidity, a timidity surely neither ungraceful 

1 Note, p. 116. 



52 ADDISON. 

nor unamiable, led Addison into the two most serious 

faults which can with justice be imputed to him. He 

(d) His found that wine broke the spell which lay on his fine 

faults : intellect, and was therefore too easily seduced into 

(i) exces- • • i 01 -i 

sive wine- convivial excess. Such excess was in that age 5 
drinking, regarded, even by grave men, as the most venial of all 
peccadilloes, and was so far from being a mark of ill- 
breeding, that it was almost essential to the character of 
a fine gentleman. But the smallest speck is seen on a 
white ground ; and almost all the biographers of Addison 10 
have said something about this failing. Of any other 
statesman or writer of Queen Anne's reign, we should no 
more think of saying that he sometimes took too much 
wine, than that he wore a long wig and a sword. 

66. To the excessive modesty of Addison's nature we 15 
must ascribe another fault, which generally arises from a 
and (2) ver y different cause. He became a little too fond 
love of of seeing himself surrounded by a small circle of 
adulation. a( j m i rerSj to whom he was as a King, or rather as a 
God. All these men were far inferior to him in ability, 20 
and some of them had very serious faults. Nor did those 
faults escape his observation j for, if ever there was an 
eye which saw through and through men, it was the eye 
of Addison. But with the keenest observation, and the 
finest sense of the ridiculous, he had a large charity. 25 
The feeling with which he looked on most of his humble 
companions was one of benevolence, slightly tinctured 
with contempt. He was at perfect ease in their com- 
pany ; he was grateful for their devoted attachment ; and 
he loaded them with benefits. Their veneration for him 3° 
appears to have exceeded that with which Johnson was 



ADDISON. 53 

regarded by Boswell, or Warburton by Hurd.° It was 
not in the power of adulation to turn such a head, or 
deprave such a heart, as Addison's. But it must in can- 
dour be admitted that he contracted some of the faults 
5 which can scarcely be avoided by any person who is so 
unfortunate as to be the oracle of a small literary coterie. 

67. One member of this little society was Eustace 
Budgell, a young Templer 1 of some literature, and a 
distant relation of Addison. There was at this time 

. His satel- 

IO no stain on the character of Budgell, and it is not ntes : 
improbable that his career would have been pros- C 1 ) Eustace 
perous and honourable, if the life of his cousin had 
been prolonged. But, when the master was laid in the 
grave, the disciple broke loose from all restraint, descended 

15 rapidly from one degree of vice and misery to another, 
ruined his fortune by follies, attempted to repair it by 
crimes, and at length closed a wicked and unhappy life 
by self-murder. Yet, to the last, the wretched man, 
gambler, lampooner, cheat, forger, as he was, retained 

20 his affection and veneration for Addison, and recorded 
those feelings in the last lines which he traced before he 
hid himself from infamy under London Bridge. 

68. Another of Addison's favourite companions was 
Ambrose Phillipps, a good Whig and a middling poet, 

25 who had the honour of bringing into fashion a spe- ,. Am 
cies of composition which has been called, after his brose 
name, Namby Pamby. But the most remarkable Phlll, PPs; 
members of the little senate, as Pope long afterwards called 
it, were Richard Steele and Thomas Tickell. 

30 69. Steele had known Addison from childhood. They 

1 Index, "Inns of Court." 



54 ADDISON. 

had been together at the Charter House and at Oxford ; 
but circumstances had then, for a time, separated them 
(3) Richard widely. Steele had left college without taking a de- 
Steele; gree, had been disinherited by a rich relation, had 
led a vagrantjife, had served in the army, had tried to 5 
find the philosopher's stone, and had written a religious 
treatise and several comedies. He was one of those 
people whom it is impossible either to hate or to respect. 
His temper was sweet, his affections warm, his spirits 
lively, his passions strong, and his principles weak. His 10 
life was spent in sinning and repenting ; in inculcating 
what was right, and doing what was wrong. In specula- 
tion, he was a man of piety and honour ; in practice, he 
was much of the rake and a little of the swindler.__ He 
was, however, so good natured that it was not easy to be 15 
seriously angry with him, and that even rigid moralists 
felt more inclined to pity than to blame him, when he 
diced himself into a spunging house or drank himself 
into a fever. Addison regarded Steele .with kindness 
not unmingled with scorn, tried, with little success, to 20 
keep him out of scrapes, introduced him to the great, 
procured a good place for him, corrected his plays, and, 
though by no means rich, lent him large sums of money. 
One of these loans appears, from a letter dated in August 
1708, to have amounted to a thousand pounds. These 25 
pecuniary transactions probably led to frequent bickerings. 
It is said that, on one occasion, Steele's negligence, or 
dishonesty, provoked Addison to repay himself by the 
help of a bailiff. We cannot join Miss Aikin in rejecting 
this story. Johnson heard it from Savage, who heard it 30 
from Steele. Few private transactions which took place 



ADDISON. 55 

a hundred and twenty years ago, are proved by stronger 
evidence than this. But we can by no means agree with 
those who condemn *\ddison's severity. The most ami- 
able of mankind may well be moved to indignation, when 
5 what he has earned hardly, and lent with great inconven- 
ience to himself, for the purpose of relieving a friend in 
distress, is squandered with insane profusion. We will 
illustrate our meaning by an example which is not the 
less striking because it is taken from fiction. Dr. Harri- 

io son, in Fielding's Amelia, is represented as the most 
benevolent of human beings ; yet he takes in execution, 
not only the goods, but the person of his friend Booth. 1 
Dr. Harrison resorts to this strong measure because he 
has been informed that Booth, while pleading poverty as 

15 an excuse for not paying just debts, has been buying fine 
jewellery, and setting up a coach. No person who is well 
acquainted with Steele's life and correspondence can 
doubt that he behaved quite as ill to Addison as Booth 
was accused of behaving to Dr. Harrison. The real his- 

20 tory, we have little doubt, was something like this : — 
A letter comes to Addison, imploring help in pathetic 
terms, and promising reformation and speedy repayment. 
Poor Dick declares that he has not an inch of candle, or 
a bushel of coals, or credit with the butcher for a shoulder 

25 of mutton. Addison is moved. He determines to deny 
himself some medals which are wanting to his series of 
the Twelve Caesars ; to put off buying the new edition of 
Bayle's Dictionary ; and to wear his old sword and 
buckles another year. In this way he manages to send a 

30 hundred pounds to his friend. The next day he calls on 
iNote, p. 117. 



56 ADDISON. 

Steele, and finds scores of gentlemen and ladies assem- 
bled. The fiddles are playing. The table is groaning 
under Champagne, Burgundy, and pyramids of sweet- 
meats. Is it strange that a man whose kindness is thus 
abused, should send sheriffs officers to reclaim what is 5 
due to him? 

70. Tickell was a young man, fresh from Oxford, who 
had introduced himself to public notice by writing a 

(4) Thomas most ingenious and graceful little poem in praise of 
Tickell. the opera of Rosamond. He deserved, and at 10 
length attained, the first place in Addison's friendship. 
For a time Steele and Tickell were on good terms. But 
they loved Addison too much to love each other, and at 
length became as bitter enemies as the rival bulls in 
Virgil. 1 x 5 

71. At the close of 1708 Wharton became Lord 
Lieutenant of Ireland, and appointed Addison Chief 

Secretary. Addison was consequently under the 

Promotion . .. 

to Irish necessity of quitting London for Dublin. Besides 
Secretary- the chief secretaryship, which was then worth about 20 
two thousand pounds a year, he obtained a patent 
appointing him keeper of the Irish Records for life, with a 
salary of three or four hundred a year. Budgell accom- 
panied his cousin in the capacity of private Secretary. 

72. Wharton and Addison had nothing in common 25 
but Whiggism. The Lord Lieutenant was not only licen- 

Conduct in tious and corrupt, but was distinguished from other 
office, libertines and jobbers by a callous impudence which 

presented the strongest contrast to the Secretary's gentle- 
ness and delicacy. Many parts of the Irish administra- 3c 

l JEneid, XII, 715 + ; Georgics, III, 220 +. 



ADDISON. 57 

tion at this time appear to have deserved serious blame. 
But against Addison there was not a murmur. He long 
afterwards asserted, what all the evidence which we have 
ever seen tends to prove, that his diligence and integrity 
5 gained the friendship of all the most considerable persons 
in Ireland. 

73. The parliamentary career of Addison in Ireland 
has, we think, wholly escaped the notice of all his biog- 
raphers. He was elected member for the borough an d in 

10 of Cavan in the summer of 1709; and in the Parliament, 
journals of two sessions his name frequently occurs. 
Some of the entries appear to indicate that he so far 
overcame his timidity as to make speeches. Nor is this 
by any means improbable ; for the Irish House of Com- 

15 mons was a far less formidable audience than the English 
House ; and many tongues which were tied by fear in the 
greater assembly became fluent in the smaller. Gerard 
Hamilton, for example, who, from fear of losing the 
fame gained by his single speech, sat mute at Westmin- 

20 ster during forty years, spoke with great effect at Dublin 
when he was Secretary to Lord Halifax. 

74. While Addison was in Ireland, an event occurred 
to which he owes his high and permanent rank among 

25 British writers. As yet his fame rested on per- ~ 

J J v Iransition 

formances which, though highly respectable, were to his liter- 
not built for duration, and which would, if he had ary career - 
produced nothing else, have now been almost forgot- 
ten, on some excellent Latin verses, on some English 
30 verses which occasionally rose above mediocrity, and on 
a book of travels, agreeably written, but not indicating any 



58 ADDISON. 

extraordinary powers of mind. These works showed him 
to be a man of taste, sense, and learning. The time had 
come when he was to prove himself a man of genius, and 
to enrich our literature with compositions which will live 
as long as the English language. 5 

75. In the spring of 1 709 Steele formed a literary proj- 
ect of which he was far indeed from foreseeing the 

consequences. Periodical papers had during many 

periodical years been published in London. Most of these 

pubiica- were political ; but in some of them questions of 10 

morality, taste, and love casuistry had been discussed. 

The literary merit of these works was small indeed ; and 

even their names are now known only to the curious. 

76. Steele had been appointed Gazetteer 1 by Sunder- 
land, at the request, it is said, of Addison, and thus had 15 

Steele's access to foreign intelligence earlier and more 
project for authentic than was in those times within the reach 
tie Toiler. Q f an or( j mar y news-writer. This circumstance 
seems to have suggested to him the scheme of publishing 
a periodical paper on a new plan. It was to appear on 20 
the days on which the post left London for the country, 
which were, in that generation, the Tuesdays, Thursdays, 
and Saturdays. It was to contain the foreign news, 
accounts of theatrical representations, and the literary 
gossip of Will's 2 and of the Grecian. 2 It was also to con- 25 
tain remarks on the fashionable topics of the day, com- 
pliments to beauties, pasquinades on noted sharpers, and 
criticisms on popular preachers. The aim of Steele does 
not appear to have been at first higher than this. He 
was not ill qualified to conduct the work which he had 30 

1 Index, " Gazette." 2 Index, " Clubs." 



ADDISON. 59 

planned. His public intelligence he drew from the best 
sources. He knew the town, and had paid dear for the 
knowledge. He had read much more than the dissipated 
men of that time were in the habit of reading. He was 
5 a rake among scholars, and a scholar among rakes. His 
style was easy and not incorrect ; and, though his wit and 
humour were of no high order, his gay animal spirits im- 
parted to his compositions an air of vivacity which 
ordinary readers could hardly distinguish from comic 
10 genius. His writings have been well compared to those 
light wines which though deficient in body and flavour, 
are yet a pleasant small drink, if not kept too long, or 
carried too far. 

77. Isaac Bickerstaff, Esquire, Astrologer, was an 
15 imaginary person, almost as well known in that age as 

Mr. Paul Pry or Mr. Samuel Pickwick in ours. 
Swift had assumed the name of Bickerstaff in a donym 
satirical pamphlet against Partridge, the maker of "Bicker- 
almanacks. Partridge had been fool enough to 

20 publish a furious reply. Bickerstaff had rejoined in a 
second pamphlet still more diverting than the first. All 
the wits had combined to keep up the joke, and the town 
was long in convulsions of laughter. Steele determined 
to employ the name which this controversy had made 

25 popular ; and, in 1 709, it was announced that Isaac 
Bickerstaff, Esquire, Astrologer, was about to publish a 
paper called the Tatler. 

78. Addison had not been consulted about this scheme ; 
but as soon as he heard of it he determined to give his 

30 assistance. The effect of that assistance cannot be Addison's 
better described than in Steele's own words. " I cooperation. 



60 ADDISON. 

fared," he said, " like a distressed prince who calls in a 
powerful neighbour to his aid. I was undone by my 
auxiliary. When I had once called him in, I could not 
subsist without dependence on him." ''The paper," he 
says elsewhere, " was advanced indeed. It was raised to 5 
a greater thing than I intended it." 

79. It is probable that Addison, when he sent across 
St. George's Channel his first contributions to the Tatler, 

~, ,. had no notion of the extent and variety of his own 

The dis- J 

closure of powers. He was the possessor of a vast mine, rich 10 
his powers. ^^ a h un d re d ores. But he had been acquainted 
only with the least precious part of his treasures, and had 
hitherto contented himself with producing sometimes 
copper and sometimes lead, intermingled with a little 
silver. All at once, and by mere accident, he had 15 
lighted on an inexhaustible vein of the finest gold. 

80. The mere choice and arrangement of his words 
would have sufficed to make his essays classical. For 

never, not even by Dryden, not even by Temple, 

(a) Diction. .,.■„,.., , . • , , 

had the English language been written with such 20 
sweetness, grace, and facility. But this was the smallest 
part of Addison's praise. Had he clothed his thoughts 
in the half French style of Horace Walpole, or in the 
half Latin style of Dr. Johnson, or in the half German 
jargon of the present day, 1 his genius would have 25 
triumphed over all faults of manner. As a moral satirist 
he stands unrivalled. If ever the best Tatlers and Spec- 
tators were equalled in their own kind, we should be in- 
clined to guess that it must have been by the lost comedies 
of Menander. 3° 

1 Note, p. 117. 



ADDISON. 61 

8 1 . In wit, properly so called, 1 Addison was not inferior 
to Cowley or Butler. No single ode of Cowley contains 
so many happy analogies as are crowded into the 

lines to Sir Godfrey Kneller ; and we would under- tion and 
5 take to collect from the Spectators as great a num- character 
ber of ingenious illustrations as can be found in Hudi- 
bras. 2 The still higher faculty of invention Addison pos- 
sessed in still larger measure. The numerous fictions, 
generally original, often wild and grotesque, but always 

io singularly graceful and happy, which are found in his 
essays, fully entitle him to the rank of a great poet, a rank 
to which his metrical compositions give him no claim. As 
an observer of life, of manners, of all the shades of human 
character, he stands in the first class. And what he 

15 observed he had the art of communicating in two widely 
different ways. He could describe virtues, vices, habits, 
whims, as well as Clarendon. But he could do something 
better. He could call human beings into existence, and 
make them exhibit themselves. If we wish to find any- 

20 thing more vivid than Addison's best portraits, we must 
go either to Shakspeare or Cervantes. 

82. But what shall we say of Addison's humour, of his 
sense of the ludicrous, of his power of awakening that 
sense in others, and of drawing mirth from inci- 

25 dents which occur every day, and from little pecu- 
liarities of temper and manner, such as may be found in 
every man ? We feel the charm : we give ourselves up to 
it : but we strive in vain to analyse it. 

83. Perhaps the best way of describing Addison's 
30 peculiar pleasantry is to compare it with the pleasantry 

1 Note, p. 117. 2 Index, "Butler." 






62 ADDISON. 

of some other great satirists. The three most eminent 

masters of the art of ridicule during the eighteenth 

Proposed cent ury, were, we conceive, Addison, Swift, and 

compari- Voltaire. Which of the three had the greatest 

power of moving laughter may be questioned. But 5 

each of them, within his own domain, was supreme. 

84. Voltaire is the prince of buffoons. His merriment 
is without disguise or restraint. He gambols ; he grins ; 

H nor of ne sna ^ es tne sides ; he points the finger ; he 
Voltaire turns up the nose ; he shoots out the tongue. The 10 
and Swift; manner f Swift is the very opposite to this. He 
moves laughter, but never joins in it. \ He appears in his 
works such as he appeared in society." All the company 
are convulsed with merriment, while the Dean, the author 
of all the mirth, preserves an invincible gravity, and even 15 
sourness of aspect, and gives utterance to the most eccen- 
tric and ludicrous fancies, with the air of a man reading 
the commination service. 1 

85. The manner of Addison is as remote from that of 
Swift as from that of Voltaire. He neither laughs out 20 

Addison's n ^ e tne French wit, nor, like the Irish wit, throws 
a double portion of severity into his countenance 
while laughing inwardly ; but preserves a look pecul- 
iarly his own, a look of demure serenity, disturbed only by 
an arch sparkle of the eye, an almost imperceptible eleva- 25 
tion of the brow 7 , an almost imperceptible curl of the lip. 
His tone is never that either of a Jack Pudding or of a 
Cynic. It is that of a gentleman, in whom the quickest 
sense of the ridiculous is constantly tempered by good 
nature and good breeding. 30 

1 Note, p. 117. 



more 
genial 



ADDISON. 63 

86. We own that the humour of Addison is, in our 
opinion, of a more delicious flavour than the humour of 
either Swift or Voltaire. Thus much, at least, is 
certain, that both Swift and Voltaire have been suc- 

5 cessfully mimicked, and that no man has yet been able 
to mimic Addison. The letter of the Abbe Coyer to 
Pansophe is Voltaire all over, and imposed, during a long 
time, on the Academicians of Paris. 1 There are passages 
in Arbuthnot's satirical works which we, at least, cannot 

10 distinguish from Swift's best writing. But of the many 
eminent men who have made Addison their model, though 
several have copied his mere diction with happy effect, 
none have been able to catch the tone of his pleasantry. 
In the World, 2 in the Connoisseur, 2 in the Mirror, 2 in the 

15 Lounger, 2 there are numerous papers written in obvious 
imitation of his Tatlers and Spectators. Most of these 
papers have some merit ; many are very lively and amus- 
ing ; but there is not a single one which could be passed 
off as Addison's on a critic of the smallest perspicacity. 

20 fS"]. But that which chiefly distinguishes Addison from 
Swift, from Voltaire, from almost all the other great 
masters of ridicule, is the grace, the nobleness, the an d mor e 
moral purity which we find even in his merriment, humane. 
Severity, gradually hardening and darkening into mis- 

25 anthropy, characterises the works of Swift. The nature 
of Voltaire was, indeed, not inhuman ; but he venerated 
nothing. Neither in the masterpieces of art nor in the 
purest examples of virtue, neither in the Great First 
Cause nor in the awful enigma of the grave, could he see 

30 any thing but subjects for drollery. The more solemn 
1 Note, p. 118. 2 See List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv. 



64 ADDISON. 

and august the theme, the more monkey-like was. his gri- 
macing and chattering. The mirth of Swift is the mirth 
of Mephistophiles ; the mirth of Voltaire is the mirth of 
Puck.° If, as Soame Jenyns° oddly imagined, a portion 
of the happiness of Seraphim and just men made perfect 5 
be derived from an exquisite perception of the ludicrous, 
their mirth must surely be none other than the mirth of 
Addison ; a mirth consistent with tender compassion for 
all that is frail, and with profound reverence for all that 
is sublime. Nothing great, nothing amiable, no moral 10 
duty, no doctrine of natural or revealed religion, has ever 
been associated by Addison with any degrading idea. 
His humanity is without a parallel in literary history. 
The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power 
without abusing it. No kind of power is more formidable 15 
than the power of making men ridiculous ; and that power 
Addison possessed in boundless measure. How grossly 
that power was abused by Swift and by Voltaire is well 
known. But of Addison it may be confidently affirmed that 
he has blackened no man's character ; nay, that it would 20 
be difficult, if not impossible, to find in all the volumes 
which he has left us a single taunt which can be called 
ungenerous or unkind. Yet he had detractors, whose 
malignity might have seemed to justify as terrible a 
revenge as that which men, not superior to him in genius, 25 
wreaked on Bettesworth and on Franc de Pompignan. 
He was a politician ; he was the best writer of his party ; 
he lived in times of fierce excitement, in times when 
persons of high character and station stooped to scurrility 
such as is now practised only by the basest of mankind. 3° 
Yet no provocation and no example could induce him to 
return railing for railing 



ADDISON. 65 

88. Of the service which his essays rendered to moral- 
ity it is difficult to speak too highly. It is true, that, 
when the Tatler appeared, that age of outrageous Ethical 
profaneness and licentiousness which followed the effectsofhis 

5 Restoration had passed away. Jeremy Collier had wntin s s - 
shamed the theatres into something which, compared with 
the excesses of Etherege and Wycherley, might be called 
decency. Yet there still lingered in the public mind a 
pernicious notion that there was some connection be- 

10 tvveen genius and profligacy, between the domestic vir- 
tues and the sullen formality of the Puritans. That error 
it is the glory of Addison to have dispelled. He taught 
the nation that the faith and the morality of Hale° and 
Tillotson might be found in company with wit more 

15 sparkling than the wit 6f Congreve, and with humour 
richer than the humour of Vanbrugh. So effectually, 
indeed, did he retort on vice the mockery which had 
recently been directed against virtue, that, since his 
time, the open violation of decency has always been con- 

20 sidered among us as the mark of a fool. And this revo- 
lution, the greatest and most salutary ever effected by any 
satirist, he accomplished, be it remembered, without writ- 
ing one personal lampoon. 

89. In the early contributions of Addison to the Tatler 
25 his peculiar powers were not fully exhibited. Yet from 

the first, his superiority to all his coadjutors was evi- Hjs co . 
dent. Some of his later Tatlers are fully equal to butions to 
any thing that he ever wrote. Among the portraits, the Tatler - 
we most admire Tom Folio, 1 Ned Softly, 1 and the Politi- 
30 cal Upholsterer. 1 The proceedings of the Court of Hon- 
1 Note, p. 118. 



66 ADDISON. 

our, 1 the Thermometer of Zeal/ the story of the Frozen 
Words, 2 the Memoirs of the Shilling, 2 are excellent speci- 
mens of that ingenious and lively species of fiction in 
which Addison excelled all men. There is one still bet- 
ter paper of the same class. But though that paper, a 5 
hundred and thirty-three years ago, was probably thought 
as edifying as one of Smalridge's sermons, we dare not 
indicate it to the squeamish readers of the nineteenth 
century. 

90. During the session of Parliament which com- 10 
menced in November 1 709, and which the impeachment 

Th . of Sacheverell has made memorable," 5 Addison ap- 

relative im- pears to have resided in London. The Tatler was 
portance. now more popular than any periodical paper had 
ever been ; and his connection with it was generally known. 15 
It was not known, however, that almost every thing good 
in the Tatler was his. The truth is, that the fifty or sixty 
numbers which we owe to him were not merely the best, 
but so decidedly the best, that any five of them are more 
valuable than all the two hundred numbers in which he 20 
had no share. 

91. He required, at this time, all the solace which he 
could derive from literary success. The Queen had always 

Political disliked the Whigs. She had during some years 
conditions disliked the Marlborough family. But, reigning by a 25 
in 1709. disputed title, she could not venture directly to 
oppose herself to a majority of both Houses of Parlia- 
ment ; and, engaged as she was in a war, on the event of 
which her own Crown was staked, she could not venture 
to disgrace a great and successful general. But at length, 30 
1 Note, p. 118. 2 Note, p. 119, top. 3 Int., p. xxiii. 



ADDISON. 67 

in the year 1 710, the causes which had restrained her from 
showing her aversion to the Low Church party ceased to 
operate. The trial of Sacheverell * produced an outbreak 
of public feeling scarcely less violent than the outbreaks 

5 which we can ourselves remember in 1820, and in 1831. 
The country gentlemen, the country clergymen, the rab- 
ble of the towns, were all, for once, on the same side. It 
was clear that, if a general election took place before the 
excitement abated, the Tories would have a majority. 

10 The services of Marlborough had been so splendid that 
they were no longer necessary. The Queen's throne was 
secure from all attack on the part of Lewis. Indeed, 
it seemed much more likely that the English and German 
armies would divide the spoils of Versailles and Marli,° 

15 than that a Marshal of France would bring back the Pre- 
tender to St. James's. The Queen, acting by the advice 
of Harley, determined to dismiss her servants. In June 
the change commenced. Sunderland was the first who 
fell. The Tories exulted over his fall. The Whigs tried, 

20 during a few weeks, to persuade themselves that her Maj- 
esty had acted only from personal dislike to the Secretary, 
and that she meditated no further alteration. But, early 
in August, Godolphin was surprised by a letter from 
Anne, which directed him to break his white staff. Even 

25 after this event, the irresolution or dissimulation of Har- 
ley kept up the hopes of the Whigs during another month ; 
and then the ruin became rapid and violent. The Downf n 
Parliament was dissolved. The Ministers were of Whig 
turned out. The Tories were called to office. The ministr Y- 

30 tide of popularity ran violently in favour of the High 

1 Int., p. xxiii. 



68 ADDISON. 

Church party. That party, feeble in the late House of 
Commons, was now irresistible. The power which the 
Tories had thus suddenly acquired, they used with blind 
and stupid ferocity. The howl which the whole pack set 
up for prey and for blood appalled even him who had 5 
roused and unchained them. When, at this distance of 
time, we calmly review the conduct of the discarded min- 
isters, we cannot but feel a movement of indignation at 
the injustice with which they were treated. No body of 
men had ever administered the government with more 10 
energy, ability, and moderation ; and their success had 
been proportioned to their wisdom. They had saved 
Holland and Germany. They had humbled France. 
They had, as it seemed, all but torn Spain from the 
House of Bourbon. They had made England the first 15 
power in Europe. At home they had united England 
and Scotland. They had respected the rights of con- 
science and the liberty of the subject. They retired, 
leaving their country at the height of prosperity and 
glory. And yet they were pursued to their retreat by 20 
such a roar of obloquy as was never raised against the 
government which threw away thirteen colonies, or 
against the government which sent a gallant army to 
perish in the ditches of Walcheren. 

92. None of the Whigs suffered more in the general 25 
wreck than Addison. He had just sustained some heavy 

pecuniary losses, of the nature of which we are im- 
Addison's l \ ' 

loss of the perfectly informed, when his Secretaryship was taken 

Secretary- f rom n i m# He had reason to believe that he should 

also be deprived of the small Irish office which 30 

he held by patent. He had just resigned his Fellow- 



ADDISON. 69 

ship. 1 It seems probable that he had already ventured to 
raise his eyes to a great lady, and that, while his political 
friends were in power, and while his own fortunes were ris- 
ing, he had been, in the phrase of the romances which were 

5 then fashionable, permitted to hope. But Mr. Addison the 
ingenious writer, and Mr. Addison the chief Secretary, 
were, in her ladyship's opinion, two very different per- 
sons. All these calamities united, however, could not 
disturb the serene cheerfulness of a mind conscious of 

10 innocence, and rich in its own wealth. He told his 
friends, with smiling resignation, that they ought to 
admire his philosophy, that he had lost at once his for- 
tune, his place, his Fellowship, and his mistress, that he 
must think of turning tutor again, and yet that his spirits 

15 were as good as ever. 

93. He had one consolation. Of the unpopularity 
which his friends had incurred, he had no share. Such was 
the esteem with which he was regarded that, while TT . 

His con- 

the most violent measures were taken for the purpose tinued 
2c of forcing Tory members on Whig corporations, 2 P°P ulai % 
he was returned to Parliament without even a contest. 
Swift, who was now in London, and who had already 
determined on quitting the Whigs, wrote to Stella in 
these remarkable words : " The Tories carry it among 
25 the new members six to one. Mr. Addison's election 
has passed easy and undisputed ; and I believe if he had 
a mind to be king he would hardly be refused." 

94. The good will with which the Tories regarded 
Addison is the more honourable to him, because it had 

30 not been purchased by any concession on his part. 

1 Index, " Universities." 2 Note, p. 119. 



70 ADDISON. 

During the general election he published a political Jour- 
nal, entitled the Whig Examiner. Of that Journal it may 
His work ^e sufficient to sav that Johnson, i n spite of his strong 
on the political prejudices, pronounced it to be superior in 

Examiner. ^ tQ any of g w jf t » s wr i t i n gs on the other side. 5 
When it ceased to appear, Swift, in a letter to Stella, 1 
expressed his exultation at the death of so formidable an 
antagonist. " He might well rejoice," says Johnson, "at 
the death of that which he could not have killed." "On 
no occasion," he adds, "was the genius of Addison moreio 
vigorously asserted, and on none did the superiority of 
his powers more evidently appear." 

95. The only use which Addison appears to have 
made of the favour with which he was regarded by the 

His loyalty Tories was to save some of his friends from the 15 
to his general ruin of the Whig party. He felt himself to 

friends. ^ e j n a s i tuat j on wn ich made it his duty to take a 
decided part in politics. But the case of Steele and of 
Ambrose Phillipps was different. For Phillipps, Addison 
even condescended to solicit, with what success we have 20 
not ascertained. Steele held two places. He was Gaz- 
etteer, and he was also a Commissioner of Stamps. The 
Gazette was taken from him. But he was suffered to 
retain his place in the Stamp Office, on an implied under- 
standing that he should not be active against the new 25 
government ; and he was, during more than two years, 
induced by Addison to observe this armistice with toler- 
able fidelity. 

96. Isaac Bickerstaff accordingly became silent upon 
politics, and the article of news which had once formed 30 

1 Index. "Swift." end. 






ADDISON. 71 

about one-third of his paper altogether disappeared. The 
Tatler had completely changed its character. It was now 
nothing but a series of essays on books, morals, and 

_ . . _ 1 i , • • The Tatler 

manners. Steele therefore resolved to bring it to a succeeded 
5 close, and to commence a new work on an improved by the spec- 
plan. It was announced that this new work would be 
published daily. The undertaking was generally regarded 
as bold, or rather rash ; but the event amply justified the 
confidence with which Steele relied on the fertility of 

10 Addison's genius. On the second of January 171 1, ap- 
peared the last Tatler. At the beginning of March fol- 
lowing appeared the first of an incomparable series of 
papers, containing observations on life and literature by 
an imaginary spectator. 

15 97. The Spectator himself was conceived and drawn 
by Addison ; and it is not easy to doubt that the Character 
portrait was meant to be in some features a likeness of the 
of the painter. The Spectator is a gentleman who, s P ectator * 
after passing a studious youth at the university, has trav- 

20 elled on classic ground, and has bestowed much atten- 
tion on curious points of antiquity. He has, on his return, 
fixed his residence in London, and has observed all the 
forms of life which are to be found in that great city, has 
daily listened to the wits of Will's, 1 has smoked with the 

25 philosophers of the Grecian, 1 and has mingled with the 
parsons at Child's, 1 and with the politicians at the St. 
James's. 1 In the morning, he often listens to the hum of 
the Exchange ; in the evening, his face is constantly 
to be seen in the pit of Drury Lane° theatre. But an 

30 insurmountable bashfulness prevents him from open- 
1 Index, " Clubs." See also Maps, pp. 124-125. 



72 ADDISON. 

ing his mouth, except in a small circle of intimate 
friends. 

98. These friends were first sketched by Steele. Four 
of the club, the templar, the clergyman, the soldier, 

The Spec- and the merchant, were uninteresting figures, fits 
tatorClub. on ]y f or a background. But the other two, an 
old country baronet and an old town rake, though not 
delineated with a very delicate pencil, had some good 
strokes. Addison took the rude outlines into his own 
hands, retouched them, coloured them, and is in truth 10 
the creator of the Sir Roger de Coverley and the Will 
Honeycomb with whom we are all familiar. 

99. The plan of the Spectator must be allowed to be 
both original and eminently happy. Every valuable essay 

in the series may be read with pleasure separately 115 

Incidents ? , , , r u 1 J 

in the vet tne " ve or Slx hundred essays form a whole, and 

spectator a whole which has the interest of a novel. It must 
be remembered, too, that at that time no novel, 
giving a lively and powerful picture of the common life 
and manners of England, had appeared. Richardson 20 
was working as a compositor. Fielding was robbing 
birds' nests. Smollett was not yet born. The narra- 
tive, therefore, which connects together the Spectator's 
Essays, gave to our ancestors their first taste of an exqui- 
site and untried pleasure. That narrative was indeed 25 
constructed with no art or labour. The events were such 
events as occur every day. Sir Roger comes up to town 
to see Eugenio, as the worthy baronet always calls Prince 
Eugene, goes with the Spectator on the water to Spring 
Gardens, walks among the tombs in the Abbey, and is 30 
frightened by the Mohawks, but conquers his apprehen- 



ADDISON. 73 

sion so far as to go to the theatre when the Distressed 
Mother is acted. The Spectator pays a visit in the sum- 
mer to Coverley Hall, is charmed with the old house, the 
old butler, and the old chaplain, eats a jack caught by 
5 Will Wimble, rides to the assizes, and hears a point of 
law discussed by Tom Touchy. At last a letter from the 
honest butler brings to the club the news that Sir Roger 
is dead. Will Honeycomb marries and reforms at sixty. 
The club breaks up ; and the Spectator resigns his func- 

iotions. Such events can hardly be said to form a plot; 
yet they are related with such truth, such grace, such wit, 
such humour, such pathos, such knowledge of the human 
heart, such knowledge of the ways of the world, that they 
charm us on the hundredth perusal. We have not the 

15 least doubt that if Addison had written a novel, on an 
extensive plan, it would have been superior to any that 
we possess. As it is, he is entitled to be considered not 
only as the greatest of the English essayists, but as the 
forerunner of the great English novelists. 

20 100. We say this of Addison alone ; for Addison is the 
Spectator. About three-sevenths of the work are his ; 
and it is no exaggeration to say that his worst essay 

... ... Excellence 

is as good as the best essay of any of his coadjutors, of Addi- 
His best essays approach near to absolute perfec- son's con- 

2rtion; nor is their excellence more wonderful than 
their variety. His invention never seems to flag ; nor 
is he ever under the necessity of repeating himself, or of 
wearing out a subject. There are no dregs in his wine. 
He regales us after the fashion of that prodigal nabob 

^owho held that there was only one good glass in a bottle. 
As soon as we have tasted the first sparkling foam of a 



74 ADDISON. 

jest, it is withdrawn, and a fresh draught of nectar is at 
our lips. On the Monday we have an allegory as lively 
and ingenious as Lucian's Auction of Lives ; on the 
Tuesday, an Eastern apologue, as richly coloured as the 
Tales of Scherezade ; on the Wednesday, a characters 
described with the skill of La Bruyere ; on the Thurs- 
day, a scene from common life, equal to the best chap- 
ters in the Vicar of Wakefield ; on the Friday, some sly 
Horatian pleasantry on fashionable follies, on hoops, 
patches, or puppet shows; and on the Saturday, a to 
religious meditation, which will bear a comparison with 
the finest passages in Massillon. 

101. It is dangerous to select where there is so much 
that deserves the highest praise. We will venture, how- 
Specific ever, to say, that any person who wishes to form a 15 
mention. notion of the extent and variety of Addison's pow- 
ers, will do well to read at one sitting the following 

o. papers, the two Visits to the Abbey, the Visit to the 
Exchange, the Journal of the Retired Citizen, the Vision 
of Mirza, the Transmigrations of Pug the Monkey, and 20 
the Death of Sir Roger de Coverley. 1 

102. The least valuable of Addison's contributions to 
the Spectator are, in the judgment of our age, his criti- 

Viiueofhis ca ^ P a P ers - Yet his critical papers are always 
critical luminous, and often ingenious. The very worst of25 

papers. them must be regarded as creditable to him, when 
the character of the school in which he had been trained 
is fairly considered. The best of them were much too 
good for his readers. In truth, he was not so far behind 
our generation as he was before his own. No essays in 30 

iNote, p. 119. 



ADDISON. 75 

the Spectator were more censured and derided than those 
in which he raised his voice against the contempt with 
which our fine old ballads were regarded, and showed the 
scoffers that the same gold which, burnished and pol- 
sished, gives lustre to the ^Eneid° and the odes of Hor- 
ace, is mingled with the rude dross of Chevy Chase. 

103. It is not strange that the success of the Spectator 
should have been such as no similar work has ever ob- 
tained. The number of copies daily distributed G , 

1 J buccess of 

10 was at first three thousand. It subsequently in- the de- 
creased, and had risen to near four thousand when r * 
the stamp tax was imposed. 1 That tax was fatal to a crowd 
of journals. The Spectator, however, stood its ground, 
doubled its price, and, though its circulation fell off, still 

15 yielded a large revenue both to the state and to the 
authors. For particular papers, the demand was im- 
mense ; of some, it is said, twenty thousand copies were 
required. But this was not all. To have the Spectator 
served up every morning with bohea and rolls was a 

2oluxury for the few. The majority were content to wait 
till essays enough had appeared to form a volume. Ten 
thousand copies of each volume were immediately taken 
off, and new editions were called for. It must be remem- 
bered, that the population of England was then hardly a 

25 third of what it now is. The number of Englishmen who 
were in the habit of reading, was probably not a sixth 
of what it now is. A shopkeeper or a farmer who found 
any pleasure in literature, was a rarity. Nay, there was 
doubtless more than one knight of the shire 2 whose 

30 country seat did not contain ten books, receipt books 
1 Note, p. 119. 2 i n t. t pp. xiii, bottom, and xiv. 



76 ADDISON. 

and books on farriery included. In these circum- 
stances, the sale of the Spectator must be considered as 
indicating a popularity quite as great as that of the most 
successful works of Sir Walter Scott and Mr. Dickens in 
our own time. 1 5 

104. x\t the close of 1712 the Spectator ceased to 
appear. It was probably felt that the short-faced gentle- 

The man and his club had been long enough before the 

Guardian town ; and that it was time to withdraw them, and to 

succeeds 

the spec- replace them by a new set of characters. In a few 10 
tator. weeks the first number of the Guardian 2 was pub- 

lished. But the Guardian was unfortunate both in its birth 
and in its death. It began in dulness and disappeared in a 
tempest of faction. The original plan was bad. Addison 
contributed nothing till sixty-six numbers had appeared;^ 
and it was then impossible to make the Guardian what 
the Spectator had been. Nestor Ironside and the Miss 
Lizards 1 were people to whom even he could impart no 
interest. He could only furnish some excellent little 
essays both serious and comic ; and this he did. 20 

105. Why Addison gave no assistance to the Guardian, 
during the first two months of its existence, is a question 

which has puzzled the editors and the biographers, 

The Cato ,'■,,., , . r ■, 

but which seems to us to admit 01 a very easy solu- 
tion. He was then engaged in bringing his Cato on the 25 
stage. 

106. The first four acts of this drama had been lying 
in his desk since his return from Italy. His modest and 

. , . sensitive nature shrank from the risk of a public 

its history, _ r 

and shameful failure ; and, though all who saw the 30 

Note, p. 119. 2 See List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv. 



ADDISON. 77 

manuscript were loud in praise, some thought it possible 
that an audience might become impatient even of very 
good rhetoric, and advised Addison to print the play 
without hazarding a representation. At length, after 

5 many fits of apprehension, the poet yielded to the urgency 
of his political friends, who hoped that the public would 
discover some analogy between the followers of Caesar 
and the Tories, between Sempronius and the apostate 
Whigs, between Cato, struggling to the last for the 

10 liberties of Rome, and the band of patriots who still stood 
firm round Halifax and Wharton. 1 

107. Addison gave the play to the managers of Drury 
Lane° theatre, without stipulating for any advantage to 
himself. They, therefore, thought themselves j ts presen- 

15 bound to spare no cost in scenery and dresses, tation, 
The decorations, it is true, would not have pleased the 
skilful eye of Mr. Macready. Juba's waistcoat blazed 
with gold lace ; Marcia's hoop was worthy of a Duchess 
on the birthday ; and Cato wore a wig worth fifty 

20 guineas. The prologue was written by Pope, and is 
undoubtedly a dignified and spirited composition. The 
part of the hero was excellently played by Booth. Steele 
undertook to pack a house. The boxes were in a blaze 
with the stars of the Peers in Opposition. The pit was 

25 crowded with attentive and friendly listeners from the 
Inns° of Court and the literary coffee-houses. Sir Gilbert 
Heathcote, Governor of the Bank of England, was at the 
head of a powerful body of auxiliaries from the city, warm 
men and true Whigs, but better known at Jonathan's 2 and 

3oGarraway's 2 than in the haunts of wits and critics. 

1 See List of Addison's Works, " Cato," p. xxxii. - Index, " Clubs." 



78 ADDISON. 

1 08. These precautions were quite superfluous. The 
Tories, as a body, regarded Addison with no unkind 

and its feelings. Nor was it for their interest, professing, 

reception. as tnev did, profound reverence for law and pre- 
scription, and abhorrence both of popular insurrections 5 
and of standing armies, to appropriate to themselves 
reflections thrown on the great military chief and dema- 
gogue, who, with the support of the legions and of the 
common people, subverted all the ancient institutions of 
his country. Accordingly, every shout that was raised by 10 
the members of the Kit Cat l was echoed by the High 
Churchmen of the October l ; and the curtain at length 
fell amidst thunders of unanimous applause. 

109. The delight and admiration of the town were 
described by the Guardian 2 in terms which we might 15 

Th C to ^tribute to partiality, were it not that the Exam- 
and poli- iner, 2 the organ of the Ministry, held similar lan- 
ticians; guage. The Tories, indeed, found much to sneer 
at in the conduct of their opponents. Steele had on 
this, as on other occasions, shown more zeal than taste 20 
or judgment. The honest citizens who marched under 
the orders of Sir Gibby, as he was facetiously called, 
probably knew better when to buy and when to sell 
stock than when to clap and when to hiss at a play, 
and incurred some ridicule by making the hypocritical 25 
Sempronius their favourite, and by giving to his insincere 
rants louder plaudits than they bestowed on the temper- 
ate eloquence of Cato. Wharton, too, who had the in- 
credible effrontery to applaud the lines about flying from 
prosperous vice and from the power of impious men to a 30 

1 Index, " Clubs." 2 See List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv. 



ADDISON. 79 

private station, did not escape the sarcasms of those who 
justly thought that he could fly from nothing more vicious 
or impious than himself. The epilogue, which was writ- 
ten by Garth, a zealous Whig, was severely and not 

5 unreasonably censured as ignoble and out of place. But 
Addison was described, even by the bitterest Tory writers, 
as a gentleman of wit and virtue, in whose friendship 
many persons of both parties were happy, and whose 
name ought not to be mixed up with factious squabbles. 

10 no. Of the jests by which the triumph of the Whig 
party was disturbed, the most severe and happy was Bol- 
ingbroke's. Between two acts, he sent for Booth e .g. Boling- 
to his box, and presented him, before the whole broke- 
theatre, with a purse of fifty guineas for defending the 

15 cause of liberty so well against a perpetual Dictator. 
This was a pungent allusion to the attempt which Marl- 
borough had made, not long before his fall, 1 to obtain a 
patent creating him Captain General for life. 

in. It was April; and in April, a hundred and thirty 

20 years ago, the London season was thought to be far 
advanced. During a whole month, however, Cato Success of 
was performed to overflowing houses, and brought the Cat0 > 
into the treasury of the theatre twice the gains of an 
ordinary spring. In the summer the Drury Lane cora- 

25pany went down to the Act° at Oxford, and there, before 
an audience which retained an affectionate remembrance 
of Addison's accomplishments and virtues, his tragedy 
was acted during several days. The gownsmen began 
to besiege the theatre in the forenoon, and by one in the 

30 afternoon all the seats were filled. 

1 Int., p. xxiii, " The Tory triumph." 



80 ADDISON. 

112. About the merits of the piece which had so 
extraordinary an effect, the public, we suppose, has 
and its liter- made up its mind. To compare it with the mas- 
ary merit, terpieces of the Attic stage, with the great English 
dramas of the time of Elizabeth, or even with the pro- 5 
ductions of Schiller's manhood, would be absurd indeed. 
Yet it contains excellent dialogue and declamation, and, 
among plays fashioned on the French model, must be 
allowed to rank high ; not indeed with Athalie or Saul ; 
but, we think, not below Cinna,° and certainly above any 10 
other English tragedy of the same school, above many of 
the plays of Corneille, above many of the plays of Vol- 
taire and Alfieri, and above some plays of Racine. 
Be this as it may, we have little doubt that Cato did 
as much as the Tatlers, Spectators, and Freeholders 15 



united, to raise Addison's fame among his contem- 



poraries. 

113. The modesty and good nature of the successful 
dramatist had tamed even the malignity of faction. But 
Dennis's literary envy, it should seem, is a fiercer passion than 20 
attack on party spirit. It was by a zealous Whig that the 
the Cato. fiercest attack on the Whig tragedy was made. 
John Dennis published Remarks on Cato, which were 
written with some acuteness and with much coarseness 
and asperity. Addison neither defended himself nor 25 
retaliated. On many points he had an excellent de- 
fence ; and nothing would have been easier than to 
retaliate ; for Dennis had written bad odes, bad trag- 
edies, bad comedies : he had, moreover, a larger share 
than most men of those infirmities and eccentricities 30 
which excite laughter; and Addison's power of turning 



ADDISON. 81 

either an absurd book or an absurd man into ridicule was 
unrivalled. Addison, however, serenely conscious of his 
superiority, looked with pity on his assailant, whose 
temper, naturally irritable and gloomy, had been soured 

5 by want, by controversy, and by literary failures. 

114. But among the young candidates for Addison's 
favour there was one distinguished by talents from the 
rest, and distinguished, we fear, not less by malig- , . 

nity and insincerity. Pope was only twenty-five, sincere 

10 But his powers had expanded to their full maturity ; defence of 
and his best poem, the Rape of the Lock, 1 had re- 
cently been published. Of his genius, Addison had always 
expressed high admiration. But Addison had early dis- 
cerned, what might indeed have been discerned by an 

15 eye less penetrating than his, that the diminutive, crooked, 
sickly boy was eager to revenge himself on society for 
the unkindness of nature. In the Spectator, the Essay 
on Criticism had been praised with cordial warmth ; but 
a gentle hint had been added, that the writer of so excel- 

20 lent a poem would have done well to avoid ill-natured 
personalities. Pope, though evidently more galled by 
the censure than gratified by the praise, returned thanks 
for the admonition, and promised to profit by it. The 
two writers continued to exchange civilities, counsel, and 

25 small good offices. Addison publicly extolled Pope's mis- 
cellaneous pieces ; and Pope furnished Addison with a 
prologue. This did not last long. Pope hated Dennis, 
whom he had injured without provocation. The appear- 
ance of the Remarks on Cato gave the irritable poet 

30 an opportunity of venting his malice under the show of 
1 Note, p. 119. 



82 ADDISON. 

friendship ; and such an opportunity could not but be 
welcome to a nature which was implacable in enmity, 
and which always preferred the tortuous to the straight 
path. He published, accordingly, the Narrative of the 
Frenzy of John Dennis. But Pope had mistaken his 5 
powers. He was a great master of invective and sar- 
casm ; he could dissect a character in terse and sono- 
rous couplets, brilliant with antithesis : but of dramatic 
talent he was altogether destitute. If he had written a 
lampoon on Dennis, such as that on Atticus, or that 10 
on Sporus, the old grumbler would have been crushed. 
But Pope writing dialogue resembled — to borrow Horace's 
imagery and his own— a wolf, which, instead of biting, 
should take to kicking, or a monkey which should try to 
sting. The Narrative is utterly contemptible. Of argu-15 
ment there is not even the show ; and the jests are such 
as, if they were introduced into a farce, would call forth 
the hisses of the shilling gallery. Dennis raves about the 
drama; and the nurse thinks that he is calling for a 
dram. "There is," he cries, ''no peripetia in the trag-20 
edy, no change of fortune, no change at all." "Pray, 
good Sir, be not angry," says the old woman ; " I'll fetch 
change." This is not exactly the pleasantry of Addison. 
115. There can be no doubt that Addison saw through 
this officious zeal, and felt himself deeply aggrieved by 25 
it So foolish and spiteful a pamphlet could do 
Approval him no good, and, if he were thought to have any 
of Pope. hand in it> must do>ira harm. Gifted with incom- 
parable powers of ridicule, he had never, even in self- 
defence, used those powers inhumanly or uncourteously ; 3 ° 
and he was not disposed to let others make his fame and 




y^ 



'o/^c 



ADDISON. 83 

his interests a pretext under which they might commit 
outrages from which he had himself constantly abstained. 
He accordingly declared that he had no concern in the 
Narrative, that he disapproved of it, and that if he an- 
5swered the Remarks, he would answer them like a gentle- 
man ; and he took care to communicate this to Dennis. 
Pope was bitterly mortified ; and to this transaction we 
are inclined to ascribe the hatred with which he ever 
after regarded Addison. 
10 116. In September 1713 the Guardian 1 ceased to ap- 
pear. Steele had gone mad about politics. A general 
election had just taken place : he had been chosen Steele's 
member for Stockbridge ; and he fully expected to egotism, 
play a first part in Parliament. The immense success of 
15 the Tatler and Spectator had turned his head. He had 
been the editor of both those papers, and was not aware 
how entirely they owed their influence and popularity 
to the genius of his friend. His spirits, always violent, 
were now excited by vanity, ambition, and faction, to 
20 such a pitch that he every day committed some offence 
against good sense and good taste. All the discreet and 
moderate members of his own party regretted and con- 
demned his folly. " I am in a thousand troubles," Addi- 
son wrote, " about poor Dick, and wish that his zeal for 
25 the public may not be ruinous to himself. But he has 
sent me word that he is determined to go on, and that 
any advice I may give him in this particular will have 
no weight with him." 

117. Steele set up a political paper called the English- 
woman, which, as it was not supported by contributions 
1 See H 104. 



84 ADDISON. 

from Addison, completely failed. By this work, by some 
other writings of the same kind, and by the airs which 
and its he gave himself at the first meeting of the new Par- 

penalty. Hament, he made the Tories so angry that they de- 
termined to expel him. The Whigs stood by him gallantly, 5 
but were unable to save him. The vote of expulsion was 
regarded by all dispassionate men as a tyrannical exercise 
of the power of the majority. But Steele's violence and 
folly, though they by no means justified the steps which 
his enemies took, had completely disgusted his friends ; ic 
nor did he ever regain the place which he had held in 
the public estimation. 

118. Addison about this time conceived the design of 
adding an eighth volume to the Spectator. In June 1714, 

The specta- ^ ie ^ rst num ber of the new series appeared, and 15 
tor, Second during about six months three papers were pub- 
lished weekly. Nothing can be more striking than 
the contrast between the Englishman and the eighth 
volume of the Spectator, between Steele without Addi- 
son and Addison without Steele. The Englishman is 20 
forgotten ; the eighth volume of the Spectator contains, 
perhaps, the finest essays, both serious and playful, in 
the English language. 

119. Before this volume was completed, the death of 
Anne produced an entire change in the administration 25 

Return to °^ P u t> nc affairs. The blow fell suddenly. It found 

power with the Tory party distracted by internal feuds, and un- 

Whig-s, 1714. p re p are( j f or an y g rea t effort. Harley had just been 

disgraced. Bolingbroke, it was supposed, would be the 

chief minister. But the Queen was on her death-bed 3c 



ADDISON. 85 

before the white staff had been given, and her last public 
act was to deliver it with a feeble hand to the Duke of 
Shrewsbury. The emergency produced a coalition be- 
tween all sections of public men who were attached to 
5 the Protestant succession. George the First was pro- 
claimed without opposition. A Council, in which the 
leading Whigs had seats, took the direction of affairs 
till the new King should arrive. 1 The first act of the 
Lords Justices was to appoint Addison their secretary. 

10 120. There is an idle tradition that he was directed to 
prepare a letter to the King, that he could not satisfy 
himself as to the style of this composition, and that the 
Lords Justices called in a clerk who at once did what 
was wanted. It is not strange that a story so flat- The Letter 

15 tering to mediocrity should be popular ; and we are t0 the King, 
sorry to deprive dunces of their consolation. But the 
truth must be told. It was well observed by Sir James 
Mackintosh, whose knowledge of these times was un- 
equalled, that Addison never, in any official document, 

20 affected wit or eloquence, and that his despatches are, 
without exception, remarkable for unpretending simplic- 
ity. Everybody who knows with what ease Addison's 
finest essays were produced must be convinced that, if 
well-turned phrases had been wanted, he would have had 

25 no difficulty in finding them. We are, however, inclined 
to believe, that the story is not absolutely without a foun- 
dation. It may well be that Addison did not know, till 
he had consulted experienced clerks who remembered 
the times when William the Third was absent on the Con- 

3otinent, in what form a letter from the Council of Regency 

1 Int., p. xxiii, "Jacobite intrigues," et seq. 



86 ADDISON. 

to the King ought to be drawn. We think it very likely 
that the ablest statesmen of our time, Lord John Russell, 
Sir Robert Peel,° Lord Palmerston, for example, would, 
in similar circumstances, be found quite as ignorant. 
Every office has some little mysteries which the dullest 5 
man may learn with a little attention, and which the 
greatest man cannot possibly know by intuition. One 
paper must be signed by the chief of the department ; 
another by his deputy ; to a third the royal sign manual 
is necessary. One communication is to be registered, 10 
and another is not. One sentence must be in black ink, 
and another in red ink. If the ablest Secretary for Ire- 
land were moved to the India Board, if the ablest Presi- 
dent of the India Board were moved to the War Office, 
he would require instruction on points like these; and 15 
we do not doubt that Addison required such instruction 
when he became, for the first time, Secretary to the 
Lords Justices. 

i2i. George the First took possession of his kingdom 

without opposition. A new ministry was formed, and a 20 

Return to new Parliament favourable to the Whigs chosen. 

Ireland. Sunderland was appointed Lord Lieutenant of 

Ireland ; and Addison again went to Dublin as Chief 

Secretary. 

122. At Dublin Swift resided; and there was mucli25 

speculation about the way in which the Dean and the 

Previous Secretary would behave towards each other. The 

relations relations which existed between these remarkable 

with Swift ; men f orm an interesting an d pleasing portion of 

literary history. They had early attached themselves to-,o 
the same political party and to the same patrons. While 



ADDISON. 87 

Anne's Whig ministry was in power, the visits of Swift to 
London and the official residence of Addison in Ireland 
had given them opportunities of knowing each other. 
They were the two shrewdest observers of their age. But 

5 their observations on each other had led them to favour- 
able conclusions. Swift did full justice to the rare powers 
of conversation which were latent under the bashful 
deportment of Addison. Addison, on the other hand, 
discerned much good nature under the severe look and 

iomanner of Swift; and, indeed, the Swift of 1708 and the 
Swift of 1738 were two very different men. 

123. But the paths of the two friends diverged widely. 
The Whig statesmen loaded Addison with solid benefits. 
They praised Swift, asked him to dinner, and did their neces . 

15 nothing more for him. His profession laid them sarylimita- 
under a difficulty. In the State they could not pro- tlons ' 
mote him ; and they had reason to fear that, by bestowing 
preferment in the Church on the author of the Tale of a 
Tub, they might give scandal to the public, which had no 

20 high opinion of their orthodoxy. He did not make fair 
allowance for the difficulties which prevented Halifax 
and Somers from serving him, thought himself an ill-used 
man, sacrificed honour and consistency to revenge, joined 
the Tories, and became their most formidable champion. 

25 He soon found, however, that his old friends were less to 
blame than he had supposed. The dislike with which 
the Queen and the heads of the Church regarded him 
was insurmountable ; and it was with the greatest difficulty 
that he obtained an ecclesiastical dignity of no great 

3ovalue, on condition of fixing his residence in a country 
which he detested. 



88 ADDISON. 

124. Difference of political opinion had produced, not 
indeed a quarrel, but a coolness between Swift and Addi- 

and the son. They at length ceased altogether to see each 
results. other. Yet there was between them a tacit compact 
like that between the hereditary guests in the Iliad. 5 

E7xe<x 5' aWrjXwit aXeib/xeda kclI 81 6fxi\ov ' 
HoWol ixev yap ifxol T/ocDes /cXetroi r eiriKovpot, 
Kreivetv, ov /ce Beds ye Troprj /ecu irocrcri /a^eia;, 
IloXXot 5' ad aoi 'A%atot evaip^pLev, 8p /ce dvvrjai. 1 

125. It is not strange that Addison, who calumniated 10 
and insulted nobody, should not have calumniated or in- 

Swift's for- suited Swift. But it is remarkable that Swift, to 
bearance. whom neither genius nor virtue was sacred, and who 
generally seemed to find, like most other renegades, a 
peculiar pleasure in attacking old friends, should have 15 
shown so much respect and tenderness to Addison. 

126. Fortune had now changed. The accession of 
the House of Hanover had secured in England the 

Addison's liberties of the people, and in Ireland the domin- 
generosity. j on f the Protestant caste. To that caste Swift was 20 
more odious than any other man. He was hooted and 
even pelted in the streets of Dublin ; and could not ven- 
ture to ride along the strand for his health without the 
attendance of armed servants. Many whom ' he had 
formerly served now libelled and insulted him. At this 25 
time Addison arrived. "He had been advised not to 
show the smallest civility to the Dean of St. Patrick's. 
He had answered, with admirable spirit, that it might be 
necessary for men whose fidelity to their party was sus- 
pected, to hold no intercourse with political opponents; 30 

1 Note, p. 120. 



ADDISON. 89 

but that one who had been a steady Whig in the worst 
times might venture, when the good cause was triumphant, 
to shake hands with an old friend who was one of the 
vanquished Tories. His kindness was soothing to the 
-proud and cruelly wounded spirit of Swift; and the two 
great satirists resumed their habits of friendly intercourse. 

127. Those associates of Addison whose political 
opinions agreed with his shared his good fortune. He 
took Tickell with him to Ireland. He procured Addison's 

10 for BudgelP a lucrative place in the same kingdom, patronage. 
Ambrose Phillipps was provided for in England. Steele 
had injured himself so much by his eccentricity and per- 
verseness, that he obtained but a very small part of what 
he thought his due. He was, however, knighted ; he 

15 had a place in the household; and he subsequently re- 
ceived other marks of favour from the court. 

128. Addison did not remain long in Ireland. In 
1 715 he quitted his secretaryship for a seat at the Board 

of Trade. In the same year his comedy of the Promotion . 

20 Drummer T was brought on the stage. The name of the Drum- 
the author was not announced ; the piece was coldly mer ' 
received ; and some critics have expressed a doubt 
whether it were really Addison's. To us the evidence, 
both external and internal, seems decisive. It is not in 

25 Addison's best manner; but it contains numerous pas- 
sages which no other writer known to us could have pro- 
duced. It was again performed after Add-on's death, 
and, being known to be his, was loudly apriauded. 

129. Towards the close of the year 1715, while the 
30 Rebellion was still raging in Scotland, 2 Addison published 

1 See List of Addison's Works, p. xxxiii. 2 Note, p. 120. 



90 ADDISON. 

the first number of a paper called the Freeholder. Among 
his political works the Freeholder is entitled to the 
The Free- first place. Even in the Spectator there are few 
holder. serious papers nobler than the character of his friend 

Lord Somers, and certainly no satirical papers superiors 
to those in which the Tory foxhunter is introduced. 
This character is the original of Squire Western/ and is 
drawn with all Fielding's force, and with a delicacy of 
which Fielding was altogether destitute. As none of 
Addison's works exhibit stronger marks of his genius 10 
than the Freeholder, so none does more honour to his 
moral character. It is difficult to extol too highly the 
candour and humanity of a political writer whom even 
the excitement of civil war cannot hurry into unseemly 
violence. Oxford, it is well known, was then the strong- 15 
hold of Toryism. The High Street had been repeatedly 
lined with bayonets in order to keep down the disaffected 
gownsmen ; and traitors pursued by the messengers of 
the Government had been concealed in the garrets of 
several colleges. Yet the admonition which, even under2o 
such circumstances, Addison addressed to the University, 
is singularly gentle, respectful, and even affectionate. In- 
deed, he could not find it in his heart to deal harshly 
even with imaginary persons. His foxhunter, though 
ignorant, stupid, and violent, is at heart a good fellow, 25 
and is at last reclaimed by the clemency of the King. 
Steele was dissatisfied with his friend's moderation, and, 
though he acknowledged that the Freeholder was excel- 
lently written, complained that the ministry played on a 
lute when it was necessary to blow the trumpet. He 30 

1 Index, " Fielding." 



ADDISON. 91 

accordingly determined to execute a flourish after his 
own fashion, and tried to rouse the public spirit of the 
nation by means of a paper called the Town Talk, 1 which 
is now as utterly forgotten as his Englishman, 1 as his 
5 Crisis, 1 as his Letter to the Bailiff of Stockbridge, as his 
Reader, 1 in short, as every thing that he wrote without 
the help of Addison. 

130. In the same year in which the Drummer was 
acted, and in which the first numbers of the Freeholder 

10 appeared, the estrangement of Pope and Addison Estran 
became complete. Addison had from the first merit of 
seen that Pope was false and malevolent. Pope Po P c ; re ~ 

motecaust 

had discovered that Addison was jealous. The dis- 
covery was made in a strange manner. Pope had written 

15 the Rape of the Lock, in two cantos, without supernatural 
machinery. These two cantos had been loudly ap- 
plauded, and by none more loudly than by Addison. 
Then Pope thought of the Sylphs and Gnomes, Ariel, 
Momentilla, Crispissa, and Umbriel, and resolved to 

20 interweave the Rosicrucian mythology with the original 
fabric. 2 He asked Addison's advice. Addison said that 
the poem as it stood was a delicious little thing, and en- 
treated Pope not to run the risk of marring what was so 
excellent in trying to mend it. Pope afterwards declared 

25 that this insidious counsel first opened his eyes to the 
baseness of him who gave it. 

131. Now there can be no doubt that Pope's plan was 
most ingenious, and that he afterwards executed it with 
great skill and success. But does it necessarily follow 

30 that Addison's advice was bad? And if Addison's 
1 See List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv. 2 See Note (on 18. 11), p. 119. 



92 ADDISON. 

advice was bad, does it necessarily follow that it was given 
from bad motives? If a friend were to ask us whether 
Add' ' we would advise him to risk his all in a lottery of 
sound which the chances were ten to one against him, we 

judgment, should, do our best to dissuade him from running such 5 
a risk. Even if he were so lucky as to get the thirty thou- 
sand pound prize, we should not admit that we had coun- 
selled him ill ; and we should certainly think it the height 
of injustice in him to accuse us of having been actuated 
by malice. We think Addison's advice good advice. It 10 
rested on a sound principle, the result of long and wide 
experience. The general rule undoubtedly is that, when 
a successful work of imagination has been produced, it 
should not be recast. We cannot at this moment call 
to mind a single instance in which this rule has been 15 
transgressed with happy effect, except the instance of 
the Rape of the Lock. Tasso recast his Jerusalem. 
Akenside recast his Pleasures of the Imagination, and 
his Epistle to Curio. Pope himself, emboldened no 
doubt by the success with which he had expanded and 20 
remodelled the Rape of the Lock, made the same experi- 
ment on the Dunciad. All these attempts failed. Who 
was to foresee that Pope would, once in his life, be able 
to do what he could not himself do twice, and what 
nobody else has ever done? 25 

132. Addison's advice was good. But had it been 

bad, why should we pronounce it dishonest? Scott tells 

and his us that one of his best friends predicted the failure 

sincerity. f Waverley. Herder adjured Goethe not to 

take so unpromising a subject as Faust. Hume tried 30 

to dissuade Robertson from writing the History of 



ADDISON. 93 

Charles the Fifth. Nay, Pope himself was one of those 
who prophesied that Cato would never succeed on the 
stage, and advised Addison to print it without risking 
a representation. But Scott, Goethe, Robertson, Addi- 
5 son, had the good sense and generosity to give their 
advisers credit for the best intentions. Pope's heart was 
not of the same kind with theirs. 

133. In 1 715, while he was engaged in translating the 
Iliad, he met Addison at a coffee-house. Phillipps and 

ioBudgell were there; but their sovereign got rid His loyalty 
of them, and asked Pope to dine with him alone. to Tickeii. 
After dinner, Addison said that he lay under a difficulty 
which he wished to explain. " Tickell," he said, " trans- 
lated some time ago the first book of the Iliad. I have 

15 promised to look it over and correct it. I cannot, 
therefore, ask to see yours ; for that would be double- 
dealing." Pope made a civil reply, and begged that 
his second book might have the advantage of Addison's 
revision. Addison readily agreed, looked over the sec- 

2oond book, and sent it back with warm commendations. 

134. Tickell's version of the first book appeared soon 
after this conversation. In the preface, all rivalry was 
earnestly disclaimed. Tickell declared that he Ticke]rs 
should not go on with the Iliad. That enterprise seif-efface- 

25 he should leave to powers which he admitted to be ment - 
superior to his own. His only view, he said, in publishing 
this specimen was to bespeak the favour of the public to a 
translation of the Odyssey, in which he had made some 
progress. 

30 135. Addison, and Addison's devoted followers, pro- 
nounced both the versions good, but maintained that 



94 ADDISON. 

Tickell's had more of the original. The town gave a de- 
cided preference to Pope's. We do not think it worth 
while to settle such a question of precedence. 
estimate of Neither of the rivals can be said to have translated 
Pope's the Iliad, unless, indeed, the word translation be 5 

used in the sense which it bears in the Midsummer 
Night's Dream. When Bottom makes his appearance 
with an ass's head instead of his own, Peter Quince ex- 
claims, " Bless thee ! Bottom, bless thee ! thou art trans- 
lated." In this sense, undoubtedly, the readers of either 10 
Pope or Tickell may very properly exclaim, " Bless thee, 
Homer ; thou art translated indeed." 

136. Our readers will, we hope, agree with us in think- 
ing that no man in Addison's situation could have acted 

Pope's sus- more fairly and kindly, both towards Pope, and tow- 15 
picions arc j s Tickell, than he appears to have done. But 

an odious suspicion had sprung up in the mind of Pope. 
He fancied, and he soon firmly believed, that there was 
a deep conspiracy against his fame and his fortunes. 
The work on which he had staked his reputation was to 20 
be depreciated. The subscription, on which rested his 
hopes of a competence, was to be defeated. With this 
view Addison had made a rival translation : Tickell had 
consented to father it ; and the wits of Button's had 
united to puff it. 25 

137. Is there any external evidence to support this 
grave accusation ? The answer is short. There is 

unproven 

absolutely none. 

138. Was there any internal evidence which proved 
Addison to be the author of this version? Was it a work 30 
which Tickell was incapable of producing? Surely not. 



ADDISON. 95 

Tickell was a Fellow of a College at Oxford, and must be 
supposed to have been able to construe the Iliad ; and 
he was a better versifier than his friend. We are not bv evi- 
aware that Pope pretended to have discovered dence, 
5 any turns of expression peculiar to Addison. Had such 
turns of expression been discovered, they would be suf- 
ficiently accounted for by supposing Addison to have cor- 
rected his friend's lines, as he owned that he had done. 

139. Is there any thing in the character of the accused 
10 persons which makes the accusation probable? We 

answer confidently -t— nothing. Tickell was long 

r 1 • • 1 -i i 1 -r. 1 • ir or justified 

after this time described by Pope himself as a very by the char- 
fair and worthy man. Addison had been, during acters of 

cither * 

many years, before the public. Literary rivals, po- 
litical opponents, had kept their eyes on him. But 
neither envy nor faction, in their utmost rage, had ever 
imputed to him a single deviation from the laws of honour 
and of social morality. Had he been indeed a man 
meanly jealous of fame, and capable of stooping to base 
20 and wicked acts for the purpose of injuring his competitors, 
would his vices have remained latent so long? He was 
a writer of tragedy : had he ever injured Rowe° ? He 
was a writer ot comedy : had he not done ample justice 
to Congreve, and given valuable help to Steele ? He 
25 was a pamphleteer : have not his good nature and gener- 
osity been acknowledged by Swift, his rival in fame and 
his adversary in politics? 

140. That Tickell should have been guilty of a villany 
seems to us highly improbable. That Addison should 

30 have been guilty of a villany seems to us highly improb- 
able. But that these two men should have conspired 



96 ADDISON. 

together to commit a villany seems to us improbable 

in a tenfold degree. All that is known to us of their 

a fortiori intercourse tends to prove, that it was not the 

of both intercourse of two accomplices in crime. These 

are some of the lines in which Tickell poured forth 5 

his sorrow over the coffin of Addison : — 

"Or dost thou warn poor mortals left behind, 
A task well suited to thy gentle mind? 
Oh, if sometimes thy spotless form descend, 
To me thine aid, thou guardian genius, lend. ic 

When rage misguides me, or when fear alarms, 
When pain distresses, or when pleasure charms, 
In silent whisperings purer thoughts impart, 
And turn from ill a frail and feeble heart; 
Lead through the paths thy virtue trod before, i« 

Till bliss shall join, nor death can part us more." 



(Enforce- 



141. In what words, we should like to know, did this 
guardian genius invite his pupil to join in a plan 

ment of such as the Editor of the Satirist l would hardly 
argument.) dare tQ propose to tne Editor of the Age? 20 

142. We do not accuse Pope of bringing an accusation 
which he knew to be false. We have not the smallest 

Po e's love doubt tnat ne believed it to be true ; and the evi- 
ofchican- dence on which he believed it he found in his own 
eiy * bad heart. His own life was one long series of tricks, 25 

as mean and as malicious as that of which he suspected 
Addison and Tickell. He was all stiletto and mask. To 
injure, to insult, and to save himself from the conse- 
quences of injury and insult by lying and equivocating, 
was the habit of his life. He published a lampoon on the 30 

1 See List of Periodicals, p. xxxiv. 



ADDISON. 97 

Duke of Chandos ; he was taxed with it ; and he lied and 
equivocated. He published a lampoon on Aaron Hill° ; 
he was taxed with it ; and he lied and equivocated. He 
published a still fouler lampoon on Lady Mary Wortley 

5 Montague ; he was taxed with it ; and he lied with more 
than usual effrontery and vehemence. He puffed himself 
and abused his enemies under feigned names. He robbed 
himself of his own letters, and then raised the hue and 
cry after them. 1 Besides his frauds of malignity, of fear, 

ioof interest, and of vanity, there were frauds which he 
seems to have committed from love of fraud alone. He 
had a habit of stratagem, a pleasure in outwitting all who 
came near him. Whatever his object might be, the in- 
direct road to it was that which he preferred. For Boling- 

15 broke, Pope undoubtedly felt as much love and veneration 
as it was in his nature to feel for any human being. Yet 
Pope was scarcely dead when it was discovered that, from 
no motive except the mere love of artifice, he had been 
guilty of an act of gross perfidy to Bolingbroke. 1 

20 143. Nothing was more natural than that such a man 
as this should attribute to others that which he felt within 
himself. A plain, probable, coherent explanation is 

r , , • , -r-r • ....,, ItS fruitS. 

frankly given to him. He is certain that it is all a 
romance. A line of conduct scrupulously fair, and even 

25 friendly, is pursued towards him. He is convinced that 
it is merely a cover for a vile intrigue by which he is to 
be disgraced and ruined. It is vain to ask him for proofs. 
He has none, and wants none, except those which he 
carries in his own bosom. 

30 144. Whether Pope's malignity at length provoked 

1 Note, p. 120. 



98 ADDISON. 

Addison to retaliate for the first and last time, cannot 

now be known with certainty. We have only Pope's 

story, which runs thus. A pamphlet appeared con- 

aiieged taining some reflections which stung Pope to the 

attack on quick. What those reflections were, and whether 5 



Pope. 



thev were reflections of which he had a rieht to 



complain, we have now no means of deciding. The Earl 
of Warwick, a foolish and vicious lad, who regarded Addi- 
son with the feeling with which such. lads generally regard 
their best friends, told Pope, truly or falsely, that this 10 
pamphlet had been written by Addison's direction. When 
we consider what a tendency stories have to grow, in 
passing even from one honest man to another honest 
man, and when we consider that to the name of honest 
man neither Pope nor the Earl of Warwick had a claim, 15 
we are not disposed to attach much importance to this 
anecdote. 

145. It is certain, however, that Pope was furious. He 
had already sketched the character of Atticus in prose. 
Pope's lam- -^ n n * s an g er ne turned this prose into the brilliant 20 
poon on and energetic lines which everybody knows by 
Atticus. heart, or ought to know by heart, 1 and sent them 
to Addison. One charge which Pope has enforced with 
great skill is probably not without foundation. Addison 
was, we are inclined to believe, too fond of presiding 25 
over a circle of humble friends. Of the other impu- 
tations which these famous lines are intended to con- 
vey, scarcely one has ever been proved to be just, and 
some are certainly false. That Addison was not in the 
habit of "damning with faint praise" appears from in- 30 

1 Note, p. 120. 



ADDISON. 99 

numerable passages in his writings, and from none more 
than from those in which he mentions Pope. And it is 
not merely unjust, but ridiculous, to describe a man who 
made the fortune of almost every one of his intimate 
5 friends, as "so obliging that he ne'er obliged." 

146. That Addison felt the sting of Pope's satire 
keenly, we cannot doubt. That he was conscious of one 
of the weaknesses with which he was reproached is Addison's 
highly probable. But his heart, we firmly believe, forbear- 

10 acquitted him of the gravest part of the accusation. ance " 
He acted like himself. As a satirist he was, at his own 
weapons, more than Pope's match ; and he would have 
been at no loss for topics. A distorted and diseased 
body, tenanted by a yet more distorted and diseased 

1 5 mind; spite and envy thinly disguised by sentiments as 
benevolent and noble as those which Sir Peter Teazle 
admired in Mr. Joseph Surface ; a feeble sickly licentious- 
ness ; an odious love of filthy and noisome images ; these 
were things which a genius less powerful than that to 

20 which we owe the Spectator could easily have held up to 
the mirth and hatred of mankind. Addison had, more- 
over, at his command, other means of vengeance which a 
bad man would not have scrupled to use. He was power- 
ful in the state. Pope was a Catholic; and, in those 

25 times, a minister would have found it easy to harass the 
most innocent Catholic by innumerable petty vexations. 
Pope, near twenty years later, said that " through the 
lenity of the government alone he could live with com- 
fort." " Consider," he exclaimed, " the injury that a 

30 man of high rank and credit may do to a private person, 
under penal laws and many other disadvantages." It is 



1 ~t 



ioo ADDISON. 

pleasing to reflect that the only revenge which Addison 
took was to insert in the Freeholder a warm encomium 
on the translation of the Iliad, and to exhort all lovers of 
learning to put down their names as subscribers. There 
could be no doubt, he said, from the specimens already 5 
published, that the masterly hand of Pope would do as 
much for Homer as Dryden had done for Virgil. From 
that time to the end of his life, he always treated Pope, 
by Pope's own acknowledgment, with justice. Friendship 
was, of course, at an end. 10 

147. One reason which induced the Earl of Warwick 
to play the ignominious part of talebearer on this occa- 
sion, may have been his dislike of the marriage 
suit to the which was about to take place between his mother 
Countess of an( J Addison. The Countess Dowager, a daughter 1 ? 
of the old and honourable family of the Middletons 
of Chirk, a family which, in any country but ours, would be 
called noble, resided at Holland House. Addison had, 
during some years, occupied at Chelsea a small dwelling, 
once the abode of Nell Gwynn.° Chelsea is now a dis-20 
trict of London, and Holland House may be called a 
town residence. But, in the days of Anne and George 
the First, milkmaids and sportsmen wandered between 
green hedges, and over fields bright with daisies, from 
• Kensington almost to the shore of the Thames. Addison 25 
and Lady Warwick were country neighbours, and became 
intimate friends. The great wit and scholar tried to 
allure the young Lord from the fashionable amusements 
of beating watchmen, breaking windows, and rolling 
women in hogsheads down Holborn Hill, 1 to the study 30 

1 Index, " Mohocks." 



ADDISON. 101 

of letters and the practice of virtue. These well-meant 
exertions did little good, however, either to the disciple 
or to the master. Lord Warwick grew up a rake ; and 
Addison fell in love. The mature beauty of the Countess 
5 has been celebrated by poets in language which, after a 
very large allowance has been made for flattery, would 
lead us to believe that she was a fine woman ; and her 
rank doubtless heightened her attractions. The court- 
ship was long. The hopes of the lover appear to have 

io risen and fallen with the fortunes of his party. His 
attachment was at length matter of such notoriety that, 
when he visited Ireland for the last time, Rowe addressed 
some consolatory verses to the Chloe of Holland House. 
It strikes us as a little strange that, in these verses, Addi- 

15 son -should be called Lycidas, a name of singularly evil 
omen for a swain just about to cross St. George's Channel. 

148. At length Chloe capitulated. Addison was in- 
deed able to treat with her on equal terms. He had 
reason to expect preferment even higher than that His mar- 

20 which he had attained. He had inherited the for- ria S e - 
tune of a brother who died Governor of Madras. He 
had purchased an estate in Warwickshire, and had been 
welcomed to his domain in very tolerable verse by one of 
the neighbouring squires, the poetical foxhunter, William 

25Somerville.° In August 17.16, the newspapers announced 
that Joseph Addison, Esquire, famous for many excellent 
works both in verse and prose, had espbused the Countess 
Dowager of Warwick. 

149. He now fixed his abode at Holland House, a 
30 house which can boast of a greater number of inmates 

distinguished in political and literary history than any 



102 ADDISON. 

other private dwelling in England. His portrait still 

hangs there. The features are pleasing ; the complexion 

Residence * s remarkably fair ; but, in the expression we trace 

at Holland rather the gentleness of his disposition than the 

force and keenness of his intellect. 5 

150. Not long after his marriage he reached the height 
of civil greatness. The Whig Government had, during 

Climax of some time, been torn by internal dissensions. Lord 
political Townshend led one section of the Cabinet, Lord 
career. Sunderland the other. 1 At length, in the spring of 10 

1 71 7, Sunderland triumphed. Townshend retired from 
office, and was accompanied by Walpole and Cowper. 
Sunderland proceeded to reconstruct the Ministry ; and 
Addison was appointed Secretary of State. It is certain 
that the Seals were pressed upon him, and were at- firsts 
declined by him. Men equally versed in official business 
might easily have been found ; and his colleagues knew 
that they could not expect assistance from him in debate. 
He owed his elevation to his popularity, to his stainless 
probity, and to his literary fame. 20 

151. But scarcely had Addison entered the Cabinet 
when his health began to fail. From one serious attack 

Loss of he recovered in the autumn ; and his recovery was 
health. celebrated in Latin verses, worthy of his own pen, 

by Vincent Bourne, who was then at Trinity College, 25 
Cambridge. A relapse soon took place ; and, in the 
following spring, Addison was prevented by a severe 
asthma from discharging the duties of his post. He 
resigned it, and was succeeded by his friend Craggs, a 
young man whose natural parts, though little improved 30 

1 Int., p. xxv, "Septennial Rill," et seq. 



ADDISON. 103 

by cultivation, were quick and showy, whose graceful 
person and winning manners had made him generally 
acceptable in society, and who, if he had lived, would 
probably have been the most formidable of all the 
5 rivals of Walpole. 

152. As yet there was no Joseph Hume." The Min- 
isters, therefore, were able to bestow on Addison a 
retiring pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year. 

, r . . . . , , Retirement. 

In what form this pension was given we are not told 
ioby the biographers, and have not time to inquire. But it 
is certain that Addison did not vacate his seat in the 
House of Commons. 

153. Rest of mind and body seems to have re-established 
his health ; and he thanked God, with cheerful piety, for 

15 having set him free both from his office and Literary 
from his asthma. Many years seemed to be plans, 
before him, and he meditated many works, a tragedy on 
the death of Socrates, a translation of the Psalms, a 
treatise on the evidences of Christianity. Of this last 

20 performance, a part, which we could well spare, has come 
down to us. 

154. But the fatal complaint soon returned, and 
gradually prevailed against all the resources of medi- 
cine. It is melancholy to think that the last months 

25 of such a life should have been overclouded both by Steele's 
domestic and by political vexations. A tradition estrange- 
which began early, which has been generally received, 
and to which we have nothing to oppose, has represented 
his wife as an arrogant and imperious woman. It is said 

3othat, till his health failed him, he was glad to escape 



104 ADDISON. 

from the Countess Dowager and her magnificent dining 
room, blazing with the gilded devices of the House of 
Rich, to some tavern where he could enjoy a laugh, a 
talk about Virgil and Boileau, and a bottle of claret, 
with the friends of his happier days. All those friends, 5 
however, were not left to him. Sir Richard Steele had 
been gradually estranged by various causes. He con- 
sidered himself as one who, in evil times, had braved 
martyrdom for his political principles, and demanded, 
when the Whig party was triumphant, a large compensa- 10 
tion for what he had suffered when it was militant. The 
Whig leaders took a very different view of his claims. 
They thought that he had, by his own petulance and 
folly, brought them as well as himself into trouble, and 
though they did not absolutely neglect him, doled out 15 
favours to him with a sparing hand. It was natural that 
he should be angry with them, and especially angry with 
Addison. But what above all seems to have disturbed 
Sir Richard, was the elevation of Tickell, who, at thirty, 
was made by Addison Undersecretary of State ; while 20 
the Editor of the Tatler and Spectator, the author of 
the Crisis, the member for Stockbridge who had been 
persecuted for firm adherence to the House of Hanover, 
was, at near fifty, forced, after many solicitations and 
complaints, to content himself with a share in the patent25 
of Drury Lane° theatre. Steele himself says, in his 
celebrated letter to Congreve, that Addison, by his 
preference of Tickell, " incurred the warmest resent- 
ment of other gentlemen " ; and every thing seems to 
indicate that, of those resentful gentlemen, Steele was 30 
himself one. 



ADDISON. 105 

155. While poor Sir Richard was brooding over what 
he considered as Addison's unkindness, a new cause of 
quarrel arose. The Whig party, already divided The Peer- 
against itself, was rent by a new schism. The a S e Bil1 - 

5 celebrated Bill for limiting the number of Peers * had been 
brought in. The proud Duke of Somerset, first in rank 
of all the nobles whose origin permitted them to sit in 
Parliament, was the ostensible author of the measure. 
But it was supported, and, in truth, devised by the 
10 Prime Minister. 

156. We are satisfied that the bill was most pernicious ; 
and we fear that the motives which induced Sunder- 
land to frame it were not honourable to him. But 

, . , . „ Its merits. 

we cannot deny that it was supported by many of 

15 the best and wisest men of that age. Nor was this 
strange. The royal prerogative had, within the memory 
of the generation then in the vigour of life, been so 
grossly abused, that it was still regarded with a jealousy 
which, when the peculiar situation of the House of Bruns- 

20 wick° is considered, may perhaps be called immoderate. 
The particular prerogative of creating peers had, in the 
opinion of the W T higs, been grossly abused by Queen 
Anne's last Ministry ; and even the Tories admitted that 
her Majesty, in swamping, as it has since been called, 

25 the Upper House, had done what only an extreme case 
could justify. The theory of the English constitution, 
according to many high authorities, was that three inde- 
pendent powers, the sovereign, the nobility, and the 
commons, ought constantly to act as checks on each 

30 other. If this theory were sound, it seemed to follow 

1 Int., p. xxv. 



106 ADDISON. 

that to put one of these powers under the absolute con- 
trol of the other two, was absurd. But if the number of 
peers were unlimited, it could not well be denied that 
the Upper House was under the absolute control of the 
Crown and the Commons, and was indebted only to 5 
their moderation for any power which it might be suffered 
• to retain. 

157. Steele took part in the Opposition, Addison with 
the Ministers. Steele, in a paper called the Plebeian, 

vehemently attacked the bill. Sunderland called forro 
defence ; ne ^P on Addison, and Addison obeyed the call. In a 
the Old paper called the Old Whig, he answered, and indeed 
refuted, Steele's arguments. It seems to us that the 
premises of both the controversialists were unsound, that, 
on those premises, Addison reasoned well and Steele ill, 15 
and that consequently Addison brought out a false con- 
clusion while Steele blundered upon the truth. In style, 
in wit, and in politeness, Addison maintained his superi- 
ority, though the Old Whig is by no means one of his 
happiest performances. 20 

158. At first, both the anonymous opponents observed 
the laws of propriety. But at length Steele so far forgot 

(•\ddison himself as to throw an odious imputation on the 
misunder- morals of the chiefs of the administration. Addi- 
stood.) son re pii e d w i tri severity, but, in our opinion, with 25 

less severity than was due to so grave an offence against 
morality and decorum ; nor did he, in his just anger, 
forget for a moment the laws of good taste and good 
breeding. One calumny which has been often repeated, 
and never yet contradicted, it is our duty to expose. It 30 
is asserted in the Biographia Britannica that Addison des- 



ADDISON. 107 

ignated Steele as " little Dicky." This assertion was 
repeated by Johnson, who had never seen the Old Whig, 
and was therefore excusable. It has also been repeated 
by Miss Aikin,° who has seen the Old Whig, and for 

5 whom therefore there is less excuse. Now, it is true that 
the words " little Dicky" occur in the Old Whig, and that 
Steele's name was Richard. It is equally true that the 
words " little Isaac " occur in the Duenna, and that New- 
ton's name was Isaac. But we confidently affirm that 

,0 Addison's little Dicky had no more to do with Steele, 
than Sheridan's little Isaac with Newton. If we apply 
the words " little Dicky " to Steele, we deprive a very 
lively and ingenious passage, not only of all its wit, but 
of all its meaning. Little Dicky was the nickname of 

15 Henry Norris, an actor of remarkably small stature, but 
of great humour, who played the usurer Gomez, then a 
most popular part, in Dryden's ' Spanish Friar.' * 

159. The merited reproof which Steele had received, 

* " We will transcribe the whole paragraph. How it can have been 
misunderstood is unintelligible to us. 

' But our author's chief concern is for the poor House of Commons, 
whom he represents as naked and defenceless, when the Crown by los- 
ing this prerogative, would be less able to protect them against the 
power of a House of Lords. Who forbears laughing when the Spanish 
Friar represents little Dicky, under the person of Gomez, insulting the 
colonel that was able to fright him out of his wits with a single frown? 
This Gomez, says he, flew upon him like a dragon, got him down, the 
Devil being strong in him, and gave him bastinado on bastinado and 
buffet on buffet, which the poor colonel, being prostrate, suffered with a 
most Christian patience. The improbability of the fact never fails to 
raise mirth in the audience ; and one may venture to answer for a Brit- 
ish House of Commons, if we may guess from its conduct hitherto, that 
it will scarce be either so tame or so weak as our author supposes.' " 

— MACAULAY. 



108 ADDISON. 

though softened by some kind and courteous expressions, 
galled him bitterly. He replied with little force and 
End of con- great acrimony ; but no rejoinder appeared. Addi- 
troversy. son was f as ^ hastening to his grave ; and had, we 
may well suppose, little disposition to prosecute a quarrels 
with an old friend. His complaint had terminated in 
dropsy. He bore up long and manfully. But at length 
he abandoned all hope, dismissed his physicians, and 
calmly prepared himself to die. 

1 60. His works he intrusted to the care of Tickell, and 10 
dedicated them a very few days before his death to 

Preparation Craggs, in a letter written with the sweet and grace- 
tor death. f u i eloquence of a Saturday's Spectator. In this, 
his last composition, he alluded to his approaching end 
in words so manly, so cheerful, and so tender, that it 15 
is difficult to read them without tears. At the same time 
he earnestly recommended the interests of Tickell to the 
care of Craggs. 

161 . Within a few hours of the time at which this dedi- 
cation was written, Addison sent to beg Gay,° who was then 20 
living by his wits about town, to come to Holland House. 

interview Gay went, and was received with great kindness. 

with Gay. To his amazement his forgiveness was implored by 
the dying man. Poor Gay, the most good-natured and 
simple of mankind, could not imagine what he had to 25 
forgive. There was, however, some wrong, the remem- 
brance of which weighed on Addison's mind, and which 
he declared himself anxious to repair. He was in a state 
of extreme exhaustion ; and the parting was doubtless a 
friendly one on both sides. Gay supposed that some 30 
plan to serve him had been in agitation at court, and 



ADDISON. 109 

had been frustrated by Addison's influence. Nor is this 
improbable. Gay had paid assiduous court to the royal > 
family. But in the Queen's days he had been the eulo- 
gist of Bolingbroke, and was still connected with many 
5 Tories. It is not strange that Addison, while heated by 
conflict, should have thought himself justified in obstruct- 
ing the preferment of one whom he might regard as a 
political enemy. Neither is it strange that, when review- 
ing his whole life, and earnestly scrutinising all his mo- 
iotives, he should think that he had acted an unkind and 
ungenerous part, in using his power against a distressed 
man of letters, who was as harmless and as helpless as a 
child. 

162. One inference may be drawn from this anecdote. 
15 It appears that Addison, on his deathbed, called himself 

to a strict account, and was not at ease till he had i ts si°-nifi- 
asked pardon for an injury which it was not even cance. 
suspected that he had committed, for an injury which 
would have caused disquiet only to a very tender con- 

20 science. Is it not then reasonable to infer that, if he had 
really been guilty of forming a base conspiracy against 
the fame and fortunes of a rival, he would have expressed 
some remorse for so serious a crime ? But it is unneces- 
sary to multiply arguments and evidence for the defence 

25 when there is neither argument nor evidence for the accu- 
sation. 

163. The last moments of Addison were perfectly 
serene. His interview with his son-in-law is universally 
known. " See," he said, " how a Christian can 

3odie." The piety of Addison was, in truth, of a 
singularly cheerful character. The feeling which pre- 



no ADDISON. 

dominates in all his devotional writings is gratitude. 
God was to him the all wise and all powerful friend who 
had watched over his cradle with more than maternal 
tenderness ; who had listened to his cries before they 
could form themselves in prayer; who had preserved hiss 
youth from the snares of vice ; who had made his cup 
run over with worldly blessings ; who had doubled the 
value of those blessings, by bestowing a thankful heart to 
enjoy them, and dear friends to partake them ; who had 
rebuked the waves of the Ligurian gulf, had purified theio 
autumnal air of the Campagna, and had restrained the 
avalanches of Mont Cenis. Of the Psalms, his favourite 
was that which represents the Ruler of all things under 
the endearing image of a shepherd, whose crook guides 
the flock safe, through gloomy and desolate glens, to 15 
meadows well watered and rich with herbage. On that 
goodness to which he ascribed all the happiness of his 
life, he relied in the hour of death with the love which 
casteth out fear. He died on the seventeenth of June 
1 7 19. He had just entered on his forty-eighth year. 20 

164. His body lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, 
and was borne thence to the Abbey at dead of night. 
The obse- The choir sang a funeral hymn. Bishop Atterbury, 
quies. ne of those Tories who had loved and hon- 

oured the most accomplished of the Whigs, met the 25 
corpse, and led the procession by torchlight, round the 
shrine of Saint Edward and the graves of the Plantage- 
nets, to the Chapel of Henry the Seventh. On the north 
side of that Chapel, in the vault of the House of Albe- 
marle, the coffin of Addison lies next to the coffin of3° 
Montague. Yet a few months ; and the same mourners 



ADDISON. in 

passed again along the same aisle. The same sad anthem 
was again chanted. The same vault was again opened ; 
and the coffin of Craggs was placed close to the coffin 
of Addison. 

5 165. Many tributes were paid to the memory of Addi- 
son ; but one alone is now remembered. Tickell be- 
wailed his friend in an elegy which would do honour Evidences 
to the greatest name in our literature, and which of respect, 
unites the energy and magnificence of Dryden to the 

10 tenderness and purity of Cowper. This fine poem was 
prefixed to a superb edition of Addison's works, which 
was published, in 1721, by subscription. The names of 
the subscribers proved how widely his fame had been 
spread. That his countrymen should be eager to pos- 

i5sess his writings, even in a costly form, is not wonder- 
ful. But it is wonderful that, though English literature 
was then little studied on the continent, Spanish Grandees, 
Italian Prelates, Marshals of France, should be found in 
the list. Among the most remarkable names are those 

20 of the Queen of Sweden, of Prince Eugene, of the 

Grand Duke of Tuscany, of the Dukes of Parma, Modena, 

and Guastalla, of the Doge of Genoa, of the Regent 

Orleans, and of Cardinal Dubois. We ought to add 

-that this edition, though eminently beautiful, is in some 

25 important points defective; nor, indeed, do we yet pos- 
sess a complete collection of Addison's writings. 

166. It is strange that neither his opulent and noble 
widow, nor any of his powerful and attached friends, should 
have thought of placing even a simple tablet, in- Memoria i 

3° scribed with his name, on the walls of the Abbey, in West- 
It was not till three generations had laughed mmster - 



H2 ADDISON. 

and wept over his pages, that the omission was supplied 
by the public veneration. At length, in our own time, 
his image, skilfully graven, appeared in the Poet's Corner. 
It represents him, as we can conceive him, clad in his 
dressing gown and freed from his wig, stepping from his 5 
parlour at Chelsea into his trim little garden, with the 
account of the Everlasting Club, 1 or the Loves of Hilpa 
and Shalum, 1 just finished for the next day's Spectator, 
in his hand. Such a mark of national respect was due 
to the unsullied statesman, to the accomplished scholar, 10 
to the master of pure English eloquence, to the con- 
summate painter of life and manners. It was due, above 
all, to the great satirist, who alone knew how to use 
ridicule without abusing it, who, without inflicting a 
wound, effected a great social reform, and who recon-15 
ciled wit and virtue, after a long and disastrous separa- 
tion, during which wit had been led astray by profligacy, 
and virtue by fanaticism. 

1 Note, p. 121. 




Bfc» 



f f*«Sl(%»i 



NOTES, ILLUSTRATIVE AND EXPLAN 
ATORY. 

13. 9. These lines occur in the PygmcEo-machia (p. xxxi), and may 
be freely rendered as follows: "And now, amid the files, presses for- 
ward the tall chief of the Pygmies, with dreadful majesty and stately 
stride, his giant frame towering above all the rest — rising even a 
nail's breadth above them." 

15. 14. In the first scene of Jonson's The Poetaster, Act V., Virgil is 
depicted as reading to his patron, Maecenas, and his friends from the 
Fourth Book of the sEneid, the passage (11. 173-188) containing an alle- 
gorical description of the Goddess Rumor, or Fame, daughter of Terra. 
The Giants, brute sons of Earth, had attempted to scale Heaven, and 
had been chastised by Jove. Then their "parent, Earth, in spite" 
against all the gods, brought forth Rumor, swift of flight, keen of 
vision, and clamorous of tongue. 

18. 28. The government of France, under Louis XVIII. and 
Charles X., was but little removed from absolutism, although it was 
Parliamentary in type. In 1830 Charles X. attempted (a) to nullify an 
election recently held for choosing representatives to the national legis- 
lature ; (6) to alter the basis of suffrage laid down in the Constitution ; 
and (c) to establish a vigorous Censorship of the Press. A revolution 
ensued, and the king was driven from the throne. In the Constitutional 
Monarchy which followed, the champions of free speech were recog- 
nized, and in 1843 (when this essay was written), among the notable 
persons active in French political life were Guizot, an author, and 
formerly a Professor of History; Thiers, a historian, and editor of Le 
National; Villeinain, formerly Professor of Rhetoric; Lamartine, a 
poet ; and Etienne Arago, a popular author. 

25. 10. This passage may be freely rendered as follows : " Muse, 
why dost thou bid me again to stammer in Latin verses, — me who 
sprang from foreign stock far north of the Alps ? " 

27. 10. No. 489 of the Spectator contained the following ode, in the 
second stanza of which Addison evidently refers to his sojourn at Rome 
(31, 4-12) ; in the third to his journey over Mont Cenis (32, 15-23); 
and in the fourth and the remaining stanzas to his threatened shipwreck 
(27,2-13):- 

"3 



ii4 NOTES. 

" How are thy servants blest, O Lord! 
How sure is their defence ! 
Eternal Wisdom is their guide, 
Their help Omnipotence. 

" In foreign realms and lands remote, 
Supported by thy care, 
Through burning climes I pass'd unhurt, 
And breathed in tainted air. 

" Thy mercy sweeten'd every soil, 
Made every region please : 
The hoary Alpine hills it warm'd, 
And smooth'd the Tyrrhene seas. 

" Think, O my soul, devoutly think, 
How, with affrighted eyes, 
Thou saw'st the wide extended deep 
In all its horrors rise ! 

" Confusion dwelt in every face, 
And fear in every heart : 
When waves on waves, and gulfs on gulfs, 
O'ercame the pilot's art. 

" Yet then from all my griefs, O Lord, 
Thy mercy set me free, 
Whilst in the confidence of prayer 
My soul took hold on thee. 

" For though in dreadful whirls we hung 
High on the broken wave, 
I knew thou wert not slow to hear, 
Nor impotent to save. 

" The storm was laid, the winds retired, 
Obedient to thy will ; 
The sea that roar'd at thy command, 
At thy command was still. 

" In midst of dangers, fears, and death, 
Thy goodness I'll adore, 
And praise thee for thy mercies past, 
And humbly hope for more. 



NOTES. 115 

" My life, if thou preserv'st my life, 
Thy sacrifice shall be ; 
And death, if death must be my doom, 
Shall join my soul to thee." 

28. 22. San Marino, one of the oldest states of Europe, lying within 
the territory of the kingdom of Italy, has preserved an independent 
republican government for centuries. It is one of the smallest states in 
the world, covering but thirty-two square miles, and containing only 
eight thousand inhabitants. 

32. 2. In using the expression the " Museum " at Florence, Macau- 
lay probably has in mind the art gallery of the Uffizi Palace, which 
contains a multitude of rare works of art, — marbles (including the 
famous " Niobe " group), bronzes (including Donatello's "David"), 
and paintings. The Vatican sculptures include the "Apollo Belvedere," 
the " Antinous," and the " Laocoon group." 

33. 4. The value and the ingenuousness of Macaulay's criticism 
may be judged from the fact that this impressive statement covers the 
" heroic poems," published in a period of eleven years only, since Dry- 
den died in 1700, and Pope's Essay on Criticism appeared in 1711. 

37. 1. The Act of Settlement, passed in 1701, had provided that 
after the death of Queen Anne the succession to the throne should de- 
volve upon her father's cousin, Sophia, Princess of Hanover; and in the 
event of her death, upon her direct descendants, provided they were 
Protestants. Louis XIV. had ignored this act in proclaiming Anne's 
brother king of England on the death of James II. in 1701. Marlbor- 
ough's victory over the French at Blenheim rendered hopeless Louis's 
plans for seating James Edward upon his father's throne. 

39. 1. In the Campaign, when Addison approaches the climax of 
his description of the contest between Marlborough and Tallard at 
Blenheim, he artfully interrupts his narrative with the exclamation : — 

" But, O my Muse ! what numbers wilt thou find 
To sing the furious troops in battle join'd? 
Methinks I hear the drum's tumultuous sound, 
The victors' shouts and dying groans confound ; 
The dreadful burst of cannon rend the skies, 
And all the thunder of the battle rise. 

" 'Twas then great Marlborough's mighty soul was prov'd, 
That, in the shock of charging hosts unmov'd, 
Amidst confusion, horror, and despair 
Examin'd all the dreadful scenes of war;' 
In peaceful thought the field of death survey'd, 
To fainting squadrons sent the timely aid, 



u6 NOTES. 

Inspir'd repuls'd battalions to engage, 
And taught the doubtful battle where to rage. 
So when an angel by divine command 
With rising tempest shakes a guilty land, 
Such as of late o'er pale Britannia past, 
Calm and serene he drives the furious blast ; 
And, pleased th' Almighty's orders to perform, 
Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm." 

51. ii. "Will's Coffee House, April 24 (1710). 

" I yesterday came hither about two hours before the company gen- 
erally make their appearance, with a design to read over all the news- 
papers; but, upon my sitting down, I was accosted by Ned Softly, who 
saw me from a corner in the other end of the room, where I found he 
had been writing something. . . . 'You must understand,' says Ned, 
' that the sonnet I am going to read to you was written upon a lady 
who showed me some verses of her own making, and is perhaps the 
best poet of our age. But you shall hear it.' Upon which he began to 
read as follows : — 

'"TO MIRA, ON HER INCOMPARABLE POEMS. 

I. 

'" When dress'd in laurel wreaths you shine, 
And tune your soft, melodious notes, 
You seem a sister of the Nine, 
Or Phoebus' self in petticoats. 

II. 

" ' I fancy, when your song you sing, 

Your song you sing with so much art, 

Your pen was pluck'd from Cupid's wing; 

For, ah ! it wounds me like his dart.' 

"'Why,' says I, 'this is a little nosegay of conceits, a very lump of 
salt; every verse has something in it that piques; and then the dart in 
the last line is certainly as pretty a sting in the tail of an epigram ... as 
ever entered into the thought of a poet.' " Here follows an account of 
Mr. Bickerstaff' s discussion of each line and phrase of the poem with 
its author, who does not perceive the delicious satire of the criticisms. 

51. 13. In the Spectator, No. 567, Addison introduced a burlesque at- 
tack on persons in public life, satirizing those libellous writers who intro- 
duced into their articles the names of their victims with the vowels left 
out in order to escape prosecution. One sentence read as follows : 
" Must the British nation suffer forsooth, because my lady Q-p-t-s has 
been disobliged? " Of course, " my Lady Q-p-t-s " was a wholly mythical 



NOTES. 



117 



person, but in the next issue (No. 568) Addison described an interview 
at a coffee house with a politician who assumed to know who was in- 
tended by this, as by all the other syncopated names. " I do assure 
you," says he, " were I my Lady Q-p-t-s, I would sue him for scandalum 

magnatum." 

55. 12. Mr. Booth, in Fielding's Amelia, is the extravagant and 
rather worthless husband of the heroine of the story, and is uplifted and 
ennobled by the fidelity and nobility of her character. Dr. Harrison is 
the clergyman who aided in bringing about their marriage, and who is a 
kind and yet wise friend to both. 

60. 25. This reference to a change in literary styles is suggestive of 
the several influences that have shaped English literary taste at different 
epochs. Horace Walpole's style, says Macaulay, elsewhere, " is more 
deeply tainted with Gallicism than that of any other English writer with 
whom we are acquainted. His composition often reads, for a page 
together, like a rude translation from the French." Dr. Johnson's style, 
shaped by his extraordinary Latin scholarship, may be judged by the 
following extract from a letter : " That voluntary debility, which modern 
language is content to term indolence, will, if it is not counteracted by 
resolution, render in time the strongest faculties lifeless, and turn the 
flame to the smoke of virtue." Carlyle (to whom Macaulay refers 
last), by his translations from the German, did perhaps more than any 
other writer to familiarize the English people with the works of the great 
German poets and philosophers of the last century. It may be suspected 
that the " half-German jargon " in which he clothed his thoughts (e.g. in 
Sartor Resartus and the French Revolution) was deliberately adopted 
for the sake of attracting attention to his utterances. 

61. 1. By "wit, properly so called," Macaulay means an exercise 
of the fancy that was especially admired in the eighteenth century. It is 
thus defined by Addison : Wit is " the putting together with quickness and 
variety ideas wherein can be found any resemblance or congruity ... in 
such a way as to give delight and surprise to the reader." Macaulay 
illustrates this by the analogy in the Lines to Kneller (see List of Ad- 
dison's Works, p. xxxiii), where Kneller's work is ingeniously demon- 
strated to be akin to that of Phidias. Of the " ingenious illustrations " 
in Hudibras, the following is perhaps the most celebrated : — 

" And, like a lobster boiled, the morn 
From black to red began to turn." 

62. 18. The " commination service " is a service ordained to be read 
in the Church of England on the first day of Lent, for the " denouncing 
of God's anger and judgments against sinners." The " invincible 
gravity " of Dean Swift when giving utterance to his most eccentric fancies 



n8 NOTES. 

may be judged by this passage from his Modest Proposal to utilize the 
surplus babies in Ireland for food. "I have been assured by a very 
knowing American of my acquaintance that a young healthy child, well 
nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome 
food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt 
that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout." 

63. 8. In April, 1766, was published in Paris a satirical and abusive 
letter signed V * * * addressed to Dr. Jean-Jaques Pansophe, by whom 
was evidently meant Jean Jaques Rousseau. The letter was a defence of 
the writer against a charge of atheism, and was at once attributed to 
Voltaire ; but he strenuously denied its authorship and diverted suspicion 
toward the Abbe Coyer. The weight of evidence to-day, however, seems 
to indicate that Voltaire was the author. 

65. 29, 30. " Tom Folio is a broker in learning, employed to get 
together good editions, and stock the libraries of great men. . . . He 
is a universal scholar so far as the title-page of all authors ; knows the 
manuscript in which they were discovered, the editions through which 
they have passed, with the praises or censures which they have received 
from the several members of the learned world. He has a greater 
esteem for Aldus and Elzevir than for Virgil and Horace." ( Tatler, 
No. 158). Ned Softly ( Tatler, 163) is referred to in the note on 51, 10. 
The Political Upholsterer {Tatler, No. 155) was an industrious man 
of business who became so much engrossed in the pursuit of political 
gossip, especially that relating to the intrigues of continental powers, 
that he finally became wholly neglectful of the upholsterer's trade, and 
was forced to borrow of his friends half-crowns wherewith to support life 
while he pestered them by detailing his news at inopportune times. 
{See, also, No. 160.) The Court of Honor is described in the Tatler, No. 
250, as follows : " As I last year presided over a court of justice, it is my 
intention this year to set myself at the head of a court of honor. ... I 
intend to set myself as president, with several men of honor on my right 
hand, and women of virtue on my left, as my assistants. . . . Having thus 
furnished my bench, I shall establish correspondences with the horse- 
guards, and the veterans of Chelsea College ; the former to furnish me 
with twelve men of honor as often as I shall have occasion for a grand 
jury ; and the latter, with as many good men and true, for a petty jury." 
The records contained in Tatler, Nos. 253, 256, 259, 262, 265, relate how 
the court adjudged cases of " short bows, cold salutations, supercilious 
looks," etc. By some editors these papers are attributed to Addison 
and Steele jointly. The Thermometer of Zeal ( Tatler, No. 220) is a 
" church thermometer" upon which the degrees are " marked upon the 
following figure . . . : Ignorance, Persecution, Wrath, Zeal, Church, 
Moderation, Lukewarmness, Infidelity, Ignorance. The reader will 
observe that the church is placed in the middle point of the glass, 



NOTES. 119 

between Zeal and Moderation ; the situation in which she always 
flourishes, and in which every good Englishman wishes her." The story 
of the Frozen Words (which thawed and became audible during a 
period of warm weather), is told in Toiler, No. 254. The Memoirs of 
a Shilling (which turned its face toward its annalist and spoke in " a 
soft silver sound") may be found in Tatler, No. 249. 

69. 20. In many English towns, political rights were limited, by a 
charter of incorporation, to a small body of persons, whose powers were 
self-perpetuated. Thus a party, once in power, was enabled to control 
elections by the use of the powers of corporations, and of its patronage 
in both church and state. 

74. 18-21. The first paper on Westminster Abbey {Spectator, 
No. 26) describes the serious reflections to which the sight of that noble 
and historic edifice naturally gives rise; the second (No. 329) is a 
humorous description of the behavior of Sir Roger de Coverley within 
its precincts. The Visit to the Exchange (No. 69) is devoted to the 
consideration of the importance of commerce to civilization. The 
Journal of the Retired Citizen (No. 317) contains a minute account 
of his daily life, including such items as " Monday, eight o'clock, — I put 
on my clothes and walked into the parlour. Tuesday {being- holiday) 

.eight o'clock. — Rose as usual." The Vision of Mirza (No. 159) is an 
allegory upon the significance of life and death. The Transmigra- 
tions of Pug the Monkey (No. 343) employs the doctrine of Pythago- 
ras that souls pass from body to body as a basis for satire upon the 
animal propensities of some men. The Death of Sir Roger (No. 
517) is notable for its simple, homely pathos. 

75. 12. This stamp tax, imposed in 1712, required that there be 
affixed to each newspaper consisting of a single sheet a stamp of the 
value of one half-penny. This was a device of the party then in 
power (Tory) to check the libellous attacks of its political adversaries 
through the periodical press. During the reign of George II. the tax 
was doubled. 

76. 5. The following data may serve as a basis for comparison : 
The first edition of Scott's Rob Roy (10,000 copies) was exhausted in a 
fortnight; of Dickens's Christmas Carol, five editions (15,000 copies in 
all) were sold the first year ; of the Spectator the earlier sales were 3000 
copies daily, and the later sales are estimated at 14,000 copies daily. 

76. 18. The Lizard family played in the Guardian a part similar to 
that of the Spectator Club in the Spectator, and to Isaac Bickerstaff and 
jenny Distaff in the Tatler. Nestor Ironside was " the Guardian " of 
certain orphaned children of the Lizard family. 

81. 11. The Rape of the Lock describes an episode in the London 
society in which Pope moved, — namely, the surreptitious cutting of a 
lock of hair from the head of Miss Arabella Fermor by Lord Petre, at a 



120 NOTES. 

card party. It is written in a mock-heroic vein, the wrath of the lady 
forming the principal motif, as does that of Achilles in the Iliad. In its 
original form it consisted of two cantos, and contained no element of 
the supernatural, but it was subsequently enlarged to five cantos by the 
addition of sylphs, gnomes, and genii, who play the same part in the 
strife that Zeus, Athene, and the other deities play in the Iliad, and thus 
increase the opportunity for pseudo-heroics. 

88. i. This passage is quoted from Iliad, VI., 226 + , where Glaucus 
and Diomed, when about to fight, discover that their fathers had been 
pledged to amity by the ties of "guest-friendship." In Pope's free 
translation, Diomed is made to exclaim: — 

" Enough of Trojans to this lance must yield, 
In the full harvest of yon ample field ; 
Enough of Greeks shall dye thy spear with gore : 
But thou and Diomed be foes no more. 
Now change we arms, and prove to either host 
We guard the friendship of the line we boast." 

89. 30. Late in 1715, the Earl of Mar started a Jacobite movement 
in Scotland, designed to disseat George I. in favor of the Stuart " Pre- 
tender" before the tenure of the Hanoverians should have become 
secured by lapse of time. The appearance of James Edward in person 
lent strength to the movement, but he was forced to flee in January, 
1716, and the movement speedily collapsed. 

97. 9. This was a stratagem of Pope's to gain notoriety by robbing 
himself of letters from persons of high standing in society, and then rais- 
ing a" hue and cry " after the thief. He contrived to place letters which 
had been sent to him by certain peers in the hands of a bookseller 
named Curll, and then instigated the House of Lords to prosecute Curll 
for having the " stolen " property in his possession. 

97. 19. Five years before Pope's death, Bolingbroke loaned to him 
the manuscript copies of certain of his political pamphlets, which, if 
published, would render him obnoxious to those in power. At Pope's 
death it was discovered that he had secretly had 1500 copies printed, 
in violation of a pledge made to Bolingbroke. 

98. 22. These lines, perhaps the most notable satiric verses in the 
English language, are to be found in the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, 11. 
193+ , and read as follows : — 

" Peace to all such ! but were there one whose fires 
True Genius kindles, and fair Fame inspires; 
Blest witli each talent and each art to please, 
And born to write, converse, and live with ease; 
Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, 



NOTES. 121 

Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne; 

View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes, 

And hate for arts that caus'd himself to rise ; 

Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, 

And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; 

Willing to wound, and yet'afraid to strike, 

Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike ; 

Alike reserv'd to blame, or to commend, 

A tim'rous foe and a suspicious friend ; 

Dreading e'en fools, by Flatterers besieg'd, 

And so obliging, that he ne'er oblig'd ; 

Like Cato, give his little Senate laws, 

And sit attentive to his own applause; 

While Wits and Templars ev'ry sentence raise, 

And wonder with a foolish face of praise : — 

Who but must laugh, if such a man there be ? 

Who would not weep, if ATTICUS were he." 
112. 7-8. The Everlasting Club {Spectator, No. 72) was a club 
of one hundred members, which was always in session because the 
twenty-four hours of the day were so distributed among the members that 
a certain number of them were always present. The Loves of Hilpa 
and Shalum {Spectator, Nos. 584, 585) are described in a tale of the 
early days of creation, when men's lives extended over several 
centuries. Shalum, after his brother had come "to an untimely end 
in the two hundred and fortieth year of his age," woed his widow 
from the tenth to the one hundred and fiftieth year of her widowhood 
with such arguments as " Remember, O thou daughter of Zilpah, that 
the age of man is but a thousand years ; that beauty is but the admira- 
tion of a few centuries." In the end a happy chapter of accidents made 
him wealthy as well as ardent, and his wooing was crowned with success. 

TOPICS AND QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. 

{References are to the numbered paragraphs of the Essay.) 

Addison (1) His Biography. Name the successive public offices 
which he held. Name the works to which he contributed, and state what 
share he had in each. What career did he originally choose? What 
circumstances, political and personal, led to the change in his choice of 
a profession? (26, 28.) In which career would he find the greater 
opportunity for exercising his literary gifts? (Cf. the careers of Steele, 
the politician, and Swift, the churchman.) What traits in Addison's 
character does it seem likely that he inherited from his ancestors? (6) 
How did his early training tend to fit him for his literary work? (7) 
What was the object and what were the benefits derived from his for- 
eign tour? Describe the circumstances regarding his two sojourns in 



122 NOTES. 

Ireland (71-74, 121; 127, 128). Show the influence of the Spanish Suc- 
cession War upon his fortunes (33, 51-54, 60; 91, 92). Show the influ- 
ence of contemporaiy English politics upon his career (108, 150). 
Discuss his work in the British and Irish parliaments, with Macaulay's 
explanation of his behavior in each (61, 73). 

(2) His Literary Work. In what respects is the Campaign superior 
to other poems of its class? (54-57.) What are the specific excellencies 
of Addison's Tatler and Spectator papers? Of the Cato f (109-112.) Of 
the Freeholder? (129.) Describe the origin (96), the plan (99), the 
contents (100, 101), the success (103) of the Spectator. Describe the 
services of Addison to the nation as a censor of morals (87, 88). 

How does Macaulay rate Addison's work in comparison with Steele's? 
(100, 118.) How does he rate Addison's humor in comparison with that 
of Swift? (87.) With that of Voltaire? (84-87.) How does he rank the 
Cato in comparison with the classic French drama? (112.) State his 
estimate of the quality of Addison's style (80) ; of his wit (81) ; of his 
humor (85) ; of his critical work (102). 

(3) His Friends. Prepare a sketch of each of the following persons: 
Steele: His character (69, 116); his relations with Addison (69,76, 

78, 95, 109, 154-159) ; his political career (76, 116, 117). See, also, Index. 

Swift: His life and literary work (Index); the characteristics pecul- 
iar to his work (87) ; his relations with Addison (122-125). 

Pope: His life and work (Index); his relations with Addison (114, 
115, 130-146) ; Macaulay's proofs of Addison's integrity in his relations 
with Pope ; instances of Pope's treachery to other friends. 

Halifax (Charles Montague) : His public services (Index) ; his 
influence on Addison's career (26, 28, 42, 43, 45, 52). 

(4) His Character. Gather and systematize under appropriate 
headings the different characteristics attributed by Macaulay to Addi- 
son. Determine the exact quality alleged to exist, and note in regard to 
each the facts in his behavior or in his writings which prove the exist- 
ence of that quality. At least three main classes should be considered, 
— his virtues, his faults, his attainments. Note what Macaulay says or 
implies of his moral standards (62, 87), his magnanimity to his foes 
(146), his generosity to his friends (93,95, 122-127), his modesty (65- 
66, 113). Weigh the testimony involved in the respect with which his 
contemporaries regarded him (94, 108-109, 164-165). What two faults 
does Macaulay attribute to him? (65-66, 113.) How many and what 
arguments are used by Macaulay to demonstrate that he was not a well- 
rounded classical scholar? (8, 10-17, 58.) What does Macaulay say of 
his conversational powers (63,64), and how does this harmonize with 
his other characteristics ? Describe the close of Addison's life, and 
show how his behavior at that time illustrates the characteristics which 
you have attributed to him. 



NOTES. 123 

The Age of Queen Anne. What were the characteristic features of 
the intellectual life of this period ? Of the literary productions (sub- 
jects, style, taste, spirit)? What themes were most commonly treated ? 
What poetic forms were most popular ? What were the relations between 
the government and the men of letters? What change in the type of 
government was being completed ? How did this affect the fortunes of 
Addison, Steele, and Swift ? What were the leading principles and 
measures of the party to which Addison belonged ? What events gave 
it control from 1705-1710? What accident gave it the advantage in 
1714 ? What were the relations between England and the various con- 
tinental powers during this reign ? How closely was the intellectual life 
of England in touch with that on the Continent ? What was the lead- 
ing factor in social life during this age ? What part does this factor play 
in Addison's literary career, and what influence did he exert upon it ? 

The Essay. Of what book is this essay a review ? What adverse 
criticisms docs Macaulay make upon that book ? How does his treat- 
ment of his theme illustrate his characteristic method as a reviewer ? 
What attitude does he assume toward female writers ? What qualities 
should you judge that he would consider requisite to an ideal biography, 
judging by his criticisms of Miss Aikin's work ? What qualities does 
he elsewhere demand? (Int., pp. ix-xii.) How far does this essay 
seem to you to meet these requirements ? What elements of style are 
noticeable in Macaulay's work ? 

Does Macaulay betray an exhaustive and intimate knowledge of 
Addison's life and character ? Do his references, allusions, and illus- 
trations display erudition ? Wit? Originality? Are they drawn chiefly 
from classic mythology, ancient literature, or modern life ? Does 
Macaulay assume wide or profound or limited knowledge on the part 
of the reader ? From his discussion of Addison's classical erudition 
(10-17, 5 8 ) an d his description of Addison's foreign tour (35-40), what 
should you conclude in regard to Macaulay's classical scholarship ? 
Does the essay seem to you to be written in a judicial or in a partisan 
spirit ? 

Compare the essay on Addison with that on Milton, as regards struc- 
ture, style, and matter. In which does Macaulay adhere the more 
closely to his ostensible subject ? In which does he employ ornament 
the more freely? In which does he enunciate the more striking and 
original propositions ? Which has the more artificial method of treat- 
ment ? Note especially the methods of opening and of closing the two 
essavs. 






124 



NOTES. 




London in 1720 — Covent Garden and Westward. 



By employing a ruler to determine the boundaries of the lettered and numbered 
sections, the following places may be located. 



Charter House, ^,1,2 
Cock Lane, A 5 , S, 4. 
Coffee Houses: 

Button's, 7, 8. 

Child's, T, 6. 

Garraway's, Y, 7. 

Grecian, AT, 8. 

Jonathan's, Y, 6. 

St. James, C, 13. 

Will's, J, 8. 
Gray's Inn, M, 3. 
Grub St., JV, 2. 
Holborn Hill, P, 4. 
Leicester Square, F, 9. 



Milton's Homes : 

Birthplace, Bread St., /', 6. 

St. Bride's, Fleet St., P, 6. 

Aldersgate St., V, 3. 

Barbican, V, 2. 

Charing Cross, G, 12. 

Jewin St., U, 3. 

Burial place. St. Giles', I', 2 



Royal Exchange, A', 

St. Paul's, T, 6. 

The Temple, O, 7, 8. 

Theatres: 

Covent Garden, J, 
Drury Lane. K, 7. 
Haymarket, E, F, 



Y,6. 














=s?mt7oW 






i§Blfl 









Efl 



EXPLANATORY INDEX. 

Abgarus : King of Edessa, a city of Northern Mesopotamia. Euse- 
bius (q.v.) introduces into his history a letter purporting to have 
been written by Agbarus to Jesus Christ, requesting the iatter to 
come to him and heal his sickness. It was stated that Jesus refused 
to do so, but offered to send one of his disciples. 

Absalom and Ahitophel : a satire by Dryden on the politicians of the 
reign of James II., including Buckingham, Shaftesbury, etc. 

Academy : the Academie Francaise was founded in 1635, when Car- 
dinal Richelieu transformed an existing organization of poets into 
a national institution, created for the purpose of securing in the 
French language the qualities of purity, richness, and refinement. 
To carry out this purpose, it pledged itself to compile a dictionary 
and other technical works. In its capacity as arbiter in questions 
of the disputed pronunciation, spelling, etc., of French words, it per- 
forms a public service for which no similar English body exists. 

Achilles : the chief warrior of the allied armies that conducted the 
siege of Troy. His quarrel with the commander Agamemnon, his 
grief at the death of his friend Patroclus, and his terrible revenge 
therefor, which brought about the death of the Trojan champion, 
Hector, and the fall of Troy, form the subject of Homer's Iliad. In 
a paroxysm of anger at Patroclus's death, he performs the feat 
referred to in H 54, which is described in Mad, XXL, 1-16. 

Act : in the University of Oxford, candidates for degrees were in the 
habit of presenting at their graduation a thesis, or statement of 
some philosophical truth, the truth of which they were prepared to 
maintain in debate against any disputant. This performance was 
technically known as their " Act." The term as used by Macaulay 
means the " Commencement " exercises of the University. 

■ffineid : a Latic epic poem, by Virgil, treating of the adventures of 
/Kneas, who (according to Virgil's narrative) fled from the sack of 
Troy and with a few ships sailed to Italy, landed near the Tiber, 
and, after a long conquest with the native tribes of Rutulians, laid the 
foundations of the Roman nation. As it is one of the two greatest 
epic poems of antiquity, its translation has been the favorite task of 
ambitious poets. 

Aikin, Lucy (1781-1864) : author of several biographies, and Memoirs 
of the Courts of Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I. 
126 



INDEX. 127 

Akenside, Mark (1721-1770) : a popular English physician and poet. 
The theme of his didactic poem, The Pleasures of the Imagination, 
was suggested by the " Essays on Imagination," in Addison's Spec- 
tator. It was first published in 1744, and was recast in 1757. His 
Epistle to Curio, published in 1744, was originally a poem in the 
ten-syllabled rhymed verse of Pope's school, but was republished 
under the title of Ode to Curio, in 1744, with its form changed to 
that of the Spencerian stanza. 

Albula : a sulphur stream four miles from Tivoli. 

Alcaics : lyric poems in the peculiar metre employed by Alcaeus, a 
Greek poet who flourished about 600 B.C. 

Alfieri (1749-1803) : the greatest Italian dramatist. He composed 
fourteen tragedies, of which Saul was his masterpiece. 

Aniadeus II. (1665-1732) : Duke of" Savoy," one of the principalities 
of the Holy Roman Empire. His predecessors had suffered many 
losses of territory from French aggressions, and had waged numer- 
ous wars in attempted reprisals. Amadeus generally ranged him- 
self among the foes of Louis XIV., but more than once traitorously 
changed sides and threw his influence in Louis's favor. In 1692, 
for example, he was serving as commander-in-chief of the troops of 
Austria in the war of the Palatinate, but was induced by a bribe 
from Louis XIV. to espouse the cause of the French. He was a 
claimant for the throne of Spain, and, in the Spanish Succession 
War, he lost his estates and fled to Italy, where his distant cousin, 
Prince Eugene of Savoy, was serving as commander of the impe- 
rial forces engaged in wresting from Spain her Italian possessions. 
By the peace of Utrecht (1714) he gained, as his share of the spoils, 
the island of Sicily, with the title of king. 

Appian Way : the famous road connecting Rome with various portions 
of Southern Italy, constructed by Appius Claudius Crecus (313 B.C.) 
and his successors. 

Arbuthnot, Dr. John (1667-1735), was one of the ablest of the coterie 
of brilliant writers who shed glory upon the reign of Queen Anne, 
to whom he was physician-extraordinary. His writings comprise 
scientific treatises and satires on political and social subjects, e.g. 
The Art of Lying in Politics and The History of John Bull. 

Ariosto (1474-1533) : an Italian poet and statesman. He lived at Fer- 
rara, twenty-six miles northeast of Bologna, where he wrote his epic 
poem, Orlando Furioso. This was intended as a companion poem 
to the Orlando Innamorato of Boiardo (a.v.). The subject of the 
former is the chivalrous exploits of Roland, nephew of Charlemagne, 
and its romantic character gives free play to those tendencies of the 
poet toward florid description, to which Macaulay refers. 

Arne, Dr. Thomas (1710-1778), was an English musician, celebrated 
■ not only for his compositions, but for his connection with persons 



128 INDEX. 

of more note than himself. He set to music the lyrical numbers 
in Milton's Comus, composed the musical setting of the famous 
patriotic lyric, Rule Britannia, and wrote the music for several 
operas, of which Addison's Rosamond is the most important. 

Athalie : a tragedy based on Jewish history, composed by Racine {q.v.). 

Athanasian Mysteries: Athanasius (296-373 a.d.) was the chief 
bishop of Alexandria, and opposer of Arius {q.v.) at the Council of 
Nicea, 325. He upheld the doctrine that the three persons in the 
divine Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are absolutely one, 
equal, and coeternal. The effort to conceive rationally the nature 
and relations of this mysterious " Three in One " has occupied the 
intellects of orthodox Christians until the present day. Dacier 
(1651-1722), librarian to Louis XIV., published a translation of 
Plato's works, in which he endeavored to trace a kinship between 
his mystic doctrines and those of Athanasius. 

Atterbury, Francis, Bishop of Rochester (1662-1732), was the leading 
Tory Churchman of his age. He had a part in the Phalaris con- 
troversy {see Boyle, Charles), and in the Sacheverell agitation. {See 
Int., p. xxiii.) He was finally banished from England for treasonous 
conspiracies with the Jacobites. 

Attic Dramatists: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides {q.v). 

Atticus (109-32 B.C.) : a highly cultivated Roman writer and historian. 
He held aloof from practical politics and from severe literary labor, 
adopting the attitude of a calm and dispassionate observer of men 
and books. His literary taste was unquestioned, even the polished 
Cicero {q.v.) submitting to his judgment. The similarity between 
his character and that which Pope wished to impute to Addison, led 
Pope to employ the name " Atticus " as a veiled method of referring 
to Addison in his celebrated satirical attack on Addison. {See A., 
% 145, and note, p. 120.) This satire, printed first as a lampoon in 
1723, was afterward published in a collection of miscellaneous 
writings by Pope in 1727, and still later, in 1735, was engrafted into 
the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot {q.v.). 

Augustan Age : an age in the history of any country made remarkable 
by the excellence of the literature produced therein is likely to be 
called the Augustan Age of that country, because it holds a place in 
its general history like that which the age of Augustus Caesar (42 
B.C. -14 A.D.) holds in Roman history. During his reign epic and 
lyric poetry and history all attained a high degree of excellence 
in the works of Virgil, Horace, and Livy. 

Ausonius (310-394) : a minor Roman writer of light verse, e.g. his 
idyll on the Moselle River. 

Bayle, Pierre (1647-1706) : author of a Historical and Critical Dic- 
tionary of the French Language (1696, 2 vols.), which was bitterly 
attacked as irreligious. 



INDEX. 129 

Benacus : the old name of Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy. It 
lies between Venice and Lombardy, the district in which Virgil's 
early life was spent, and its scenery is employed as a background 
in his poetry. In his Georgics, II, 160, he refers to Lake Benacus, 
as " tossing in billows, with a roaring as of the sea." 

Bentinck : the greatness of the " House of Bentinck " dates from the 
Revolution, when William III. created his friend William Bentinck, 
of Holland, Earl of Portland. Since that time the House has pro- 
duced several statesmen of ability and high repute. 

Bentley, Kichard (1662-1742) : the head of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
surpassed all his contemporaries in the extent and variety of his 
learning. This was proved in the famous discussion with Boyle 
and his adherents in which Bentley demonstrated the spurious char- 
acter of the alleged Greek Epistles of Phalaris. (See Boyle.) 

Berni, Francis (1490-1536) : a satirical poet of Italy. 

Bettesworth : a lawyer lampooned by Swift for his mediocre legal 
attainments and his presumption in assuming equality with eminent 
members of the English bar. 

Bickerstaff : a pseudonym employed by Dean Swift in his famous con- 
troversy with John Partridge. This man had for thirty years pub- 
lished an almanac containing various unscientific predictions. 
Swift, seizing the opportunity to indulge his satirical gift, published 
an almanac for the year 1708, including among his predictions the 
statement that the death of Partridge would take place on March 29, 
at ten o'clock. For two years after this date he insisted in various 
published communications that Partridge had died at the set time, 
using Partridge's own predictions to verify his assertions, although 
his victim (who took the whole matter seriously) wrote frantic arti- 
cles for the press to prove his own existence. The name " Bicker- 
staff" was afterward adopted by Steele as a nom de plume. 

Blackmore, Sir Richard (1650-1729) : a physician, the author of 
unimportant works on theology and politics, and author of seven 
long poems, of which the Creation is the most important. 

Blair, Dr. (1718-1800) : Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the 
University of Edinburgh, was the author of well-known but weak 
treatises on the rules of literary composition and the principles of 
good taste in literature. 

Blenheim : a village in Bavaria on the Danube River, the scene of 
Marlborough's brilliant victory in 1704. 

Blois : a city of France, about one hundred miles southwest of Paris, 
where several French monarchs have had country residences. 

Boccaccio, Giovanni ( 1313-1375) : a celebrated Italian poet and 
romancer. His tales have furnished plots for the greatest English 
writers, such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dryden, etc. 

Boiardo (1430-1^94) : one of the greater Italian poets. His Orlando 



13° 



INDEX. 



Innamorato, a long romantic poem, passed through sixteen editions 
in half a century, and was the source whence Ariosto derived the 
characters of the still more celebrated Orlando Furioso. 

Boileau, Nicholas (1636-1711) : a French poet and essayist, who 
exerted a marked influence upon the style and character of Pope's 
writings. The latter's Essay on Criticism is an imitation of 
Boileau's D' Art Poetique, and both he and Pope produced epistles 
in imitation of Horace. Both were dominated by the aim to preserve 
in their writings elegance and sobriety of form, wit and vigor of 
expression. 

Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount B. (1678-1751): a noted 
philosopher and Tory statesman. As Henry St. John, he was Sec- 
retary of War from the period of the Blenheim campaign (1704) 
to the year 1708, when the growing Whig influence in Parliament 
forced his retirement. With Harley (a.v.) he intrigued to destroy 
the influence of Marlborough and end the Spanish Succession War, 
and he became Foreign Secretary in 1710, on the downfall of the 
Whigs. (See Int., p. xxiii ) He was now created Viscount Boling- 
broke, and did a great service to his country by negotiating the 
Peace of Utrecht. He intrigued successfully for the overthrow of 
Harley, but unsuccessfully to prevent the Hanoverian succession 
(see Int., p. xxiv), and was obliged to flee into exile. Later, gain- 
ing permission to return to England, he began a newspaper war 
upon the Whig ministry in the Craftsman, and in various pam- 
phlets, but spent much of his time in the study of literature and 
philosophy with Pope, Swift, etc. 

Booth, Barton (1681-1723) : joint manager with Colley (Jibber of 
Drury Lane Theatre (q.v.), was the greatest actor of Addison's 
day. His articulation is praised in Pope's Imitation 0/ Horace, Bk. 
II., Ep. 1 ("well-mouthed Booth"), while the effect of his appear- 
ance in the title role of Addison's Cato is satirized in the same 
epistle : — 

" Booth enters — Hark ! the universal peal ! 
But has he spoken? Not a syllable. 
' What shook the stage, and made the people stare? ' 
Cato's long wig, flower'd gown, and lacquered chair." 

Boswell, James (1740-1795) : a Scotch lawyer, who won immortal 
fame by his biography of Dr. Samuel Johnson, in which are pre- 
sented the most minute and faithful details of Johnson's conversa- 
tion and personal characteristics. 

Bottom : a character in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. 
He was an Athenian weaver, whose head was transformed into that 
of an ass through the magic arts of the mischievous fairy Puck. 
While Bottom was in this condition, Titania, queen of the fairies, 



INDEX. 131 

was led through Puck's mischievous devices to fall in love with 
him under the delusion that he was beautiful. (See M. N. D., 
III., 1.) 

Bourbon, House of : the family that held the royal dignity in France 
from 1589 to 1793, and later from 1815 to 1830. 

Bourne, Vincent (1695-1747) : an usher in the Westminster School 
who won great praise for his Latin poetry. It was claimed by 
Cowper that he excelled even the minor Roman poets. 

Boyle, Charles (1676-1731) : Earl of Orrery. When a student in 
Cambridge University he published the edition of the Epistles of 
/'/i a I avis over which occurred the controversy with Bentley (a. v.). 
These epistles, one hundred forty-eight in number, were first pub- 
lished in the original Greek at Venice in 1498, but purported to be 
the production of Phalaris, tyrant of Agrigentum in Sicily during 
the sixth century before Christ. Boyle, in his edition, assumed 
them to be genuine antique relics of great value. Unfortunately, he 
went out of his way to attack Bentley, librarian of the King's library, 
for alleged attempts to put difficulties in the way of their publication, 
and Bentley published a reply, in which he presented apparently 
conclusive proofs that the epistles are of comparatively modern 
origin. The scholars of Oxford University, who had encouraged 
Boyle to publish the epistles, took up his cause, and the controversy 
raged for more than two years. 

Boyle, Henry (died 1725) : was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 
1701 to 1708, in which year he became Secretary of State. Having 
gone out of office with the Whigs, he was restored to power in 1714, 
and was raised to the peerage as Lord Carleton. 

Boyne. Battle of (July 1, 1690) : the battle which, by the defeat of 
fames II., gave to William III. the mastery of Ireland. 

Bradamante : a female warrior, a heroine in the poem of Orlando 
Furioso. For the incident referred to in the Essay on Addison, 
U i, see Orlando Enrioso, XLV., 68. 

Brunei's Mill: Sir Marc Isambard Brunei (1769-1849) was the en- 
gineer who planned and constructed the first tunnel under the 
Thames River. His invention of a machine for turning pulley 
blocks was of great importance to English ship-builders, since the 
necessity of securing absolute accuracy in the proportions of those 
blocks made their production by hand very expensive. 

Brunswick, House of: The Hanoverian kings were descendants from 
William, Duke of Brunswick-Liineburg (1569). 

Bruyere, Jean de la (1645-1696), French teacher, was also a student 
and analyst of human nature. He published Caracteres on Les 
Mceurs de ce Steele, partly a translation from the Greek of Theo- 
phrastus, partly a study of contemporary persons and manners. 

Buchanan, George (1506-1582), because of his fine classical scholar- 



132 



INDEX. 



ship was made tutor first to Mary of Scots, and afterward to her 
son, James VI. He wrote much Latin verse. 

Budgell, Eustace (1685-1736) : a relative and protege of Addison. 
His claim to literary fame rests on his connection with Addison's 
Spectator and Tatler, to which he contributed thirty-seven papers, 
most of them signed X. He lost his property in the disastrous 
South Sea speculation {see Int., p. xxv), failed to secure an elec- 
tion to Parliament, forged a will to retrieve his fortunes, was discov- 
ered, and committed suicide by drowning in the Thames River, 
leaving this justifying message to the world, — " What Cato did, and 
Addison approved, cannot be wrong." The reference is to Cato's 
soliloquy on self-murder, introduced by Addison into his play of 
Cato. (See Cato, Marcus Porcius.) 

Butler, Dr. Samuel (1612-1680) : author of Hudibras, a mock-heroic 
poem written in ridicule of the excesses and follies of Puritanism 
as seen by a Royalist and Churchman. The poem relies for its 
effect on quaint and ingenious collocations of ideas and unusual 
rhymes, e.g. : — 

" And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic, 
Was beat with fist instead of a stick." 

Callimachus (3d century B.C.) : a Greek poet, librarian of the Alex- 
andrian Library. He was the author of eight hundred works, 
including elegies, stories {Causes), epigrams, and hymns. 

Canning, George (1770-1827) : an English statesman. {Seep, xxvii.) 

Caprsese : a beautiful island at the entrance of the Bay of Naples, 
Here the Emperor Tiberius built twelve villas, the ruins of which 
are still visible. 

Capuchins : the nickname given to the members of the Franciscan Order 
of Monks; so named from the small hood (capuchon) which 
formed a distinctive portion of their dress. 

Carnival : strictly speaking, the carnival is the period from the seventh 
of January to midnight of Shrove Tuesday. At the latter time be- 
gins Lent, a period set apart by the Roman Catholic Church for 
self-denial and abstinence from pleasures. In popular use the 
word " carnival " is applied to the last three or four days of the 
period, which, especially in Italian cities, are given up to wild revelry, 
as a farewell to the pleasures soon to be renounced. 

Catinat (1637-1712), Marshal of France, and a leading commander 
during the War of the Spanish Succession, was defeated by Eugene 
of Savoy at Carpi during the struggle for the control of the Spanish 
possessions in Italy. 

Cato. Marcus Porcius (95 B.C. -46 a.d.), the hero of Addison's drama 
of Cato, was a Roman statesman celebrated for marked ability. 
and for his upright character. He bravely denounced the supposed 



INDEX. 133 

complicity of Julius Caesar in the conspiracy of Catiline, and 
became an adherent of Pompey in his struggle for supremacy 
against Caesar, fearing the effect on popular liberty of the latter's 
growing power. After Pompey's death he fled to Africa and shared 
with Metellus Scipio the leadership of the troops remaining there. 
After the overthrow of Scipio at Thapsus, Cato preferred death to 
continuance in life, and after spending the night reading Plato's 
Dialogue upon the immortality of the soul, he committed suicide by 
stabbing himself in the breast. 

Catullus (87-54 B.C.) : a Roman lyric poet whose epigrams and love 
poems are unrivalled in their exquisite grace and beauty. 

Cenis, Mont: the site of an Alpine road from Savoy to Piedmont, 
built by Napoleon I. between 1802 and 1810. 

Censorship of the Press : From the Reformation until 1693 a system 
had prevailed in England requiring publications to be licensed by 
a Censor. In that year the House of Commons voted not to 
renew the act under which the system was perpetuated, and no cen- 
sorship has since been exercised. Under the Censorship, no news- 
paper, except the Gazette {g.v.), was published. 

Cervantes (1547-1616) : author of the satirical romance, Don Quixote, 
the most notable piece of character delineation in Spanish literature. 

Chandos, Duke of: the subject of one of Pope's lampoons. This lam- 
poon comprises lines 99-172 of the fourth of the A/oral Essays, the 
Duke of Chandos being represented under the guise of Timon, a 
rich spendthrift, with pretensions to learning and benevolence, but 
wholly lacking in taste and judgment. 

Charter House : an endowed charitable hospital and school founded 
in London in 161 1, for the education of the sons of poor gentle- 
men. 

Chatham, Wm. Pitt, Earl of (1708-1778) : called the Great Com- 
moner. Pitt entered Parliament in 1735, and rose rapidly to the 
position of Leader of the Whig party in the House of Commons. 
He was successively Paymaster of the Forces, Secretary of State, 
and Lord Privy Seal, acting also in the latter case as Prime Minis- 
ter. In 1766 he was created Earl of Chatham, and two years later 
retired from political office because of ill health. 

Chelsea : formerly a rural suburb of London, lying four miles south- 
west of the Old City. 

Chirk : a town in Denbighshire in North Wales. 

Chevy Chase : a popular early English ballad which deals with a 
border contest between Lord Percy and the Douglas. 

Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106-43 B.C.) : the most polished orator and 
essayist of the classical period of Roman letters. He wrote numer- 
ous orations and innumerable epistles, all marked by extreme 
elegance of expression and perfection of form. 



134 INDEX. 

Cinna : an historical tragedy by Corneille, the greatest French tragic 

dramatist. 
Circe : An enchantress of ancient mythology, who was fabled to dwell 
on an island in the Mediterranean, near Italy. She offered to her 
victims a magic potion which transformed those who drank it into 
swine. Ulysses, a Greek hero, however, received from the god 
Hermes an herb which formed an antidote to the drug. Circe's 
promontory is the promontory of Circeii, in Latium, now called 
Monte Circello. Since at a distance it appears like an island, 
tradition identified it with the island mentioned above. 
Clarendon (1608-1674) : Edward Hyde, Lord Clarendon, was a leading 
statesman of the Restoration. (See p. xvii.) He wrote a History 
of the Great Rebellion, notable for its graphic anecdotes, its keen 
analysis of motives, and its masterly portraiture of character. 
Claudian (about 400 A.D.), the latest of the great Latin poets, was 
considered by his contemporaries the peer of Homer and Virgil. 
Clubs and Coffee Houses : A unique feature of society during the 
reign of Queen Anne was the prevalence of clubs. These served 
the combined ends fulfilled in later days by newspapers, magazines 
of literary criticism, societies, clubs, and associations for promoting 
culture or for furthering the interests of persons engaged in the 
same business. The clubs met generally in rooms reserved for 
them at coffee houses, another of the characteristic products of the 
social life of the period. These were places of public resort where 
tea, coffee, wines, and more substantial refreshments were served to 
the frequenters, where the regular periodicals, like the Spectator a.nd 
the Guardian, and the more recent ephemeral sheets, like the 
Conduct of the Allies, were to be seen fresh from the press, furnish- 
ing abundant subject for discussion. 

The names, locations, and characteristics of the leading clubs and 
coffee houses were as follows : — 
Button's Coffee House, in Covent Garden, was a favorite resort 

of Addison, Steele, Pope, Swift, and other literary men. 
Child's Coffee House was in St. Paul's Churchyard, and was 
the meeting place of clergymen, especially ardent High Church- 
men, and members of the other learned professions. 
The Cocoa Tree was the resort of the Tory politicians. 
Garraway's Coffee House was in Exchange Alley, and by its 
contiguity to the Stock Exchange attracted brokers and 
merchants. 
THE Grecian, the earliest of these houses (dating from 1652), was 
located in Devereux Court, and derived its name from the 
nationality of its proprietor. It was the gathering place of men 
of a quiet, reflective temper, and was the scene of many philo- 
sophical discussions, These facts were so well known that the 






INDEX. 135 

editor of the Tatler (see Periodicals) significantly dated all his 
more learned papers from the Grecian. 

JONATHAN'S, in Change Alley, named from its keeper, was the 
rendezvous of stock-brokers and bankers. 

The Kit Cat Club, the most celebrated club of the day, con- 
sisted of about forty prominent Whigs, who met at a mut- 
ton-pie house kept by Christopher Cat, in Shire Lane. Among 
the members were Walpole, Congreve, Addison, and Steele. 
Each member at his admission celebrated in verse the praises 
of the lady whom he had chosen for his "toast," and this 
verse was subsequently engraved upon his drinking-glass. 
Addison's " toast" was the Countess of Manchester {see H 29), 
and the verse read as follows : — 

" While haughty Gallia's dames, that spread 
O'er their pale cheeks an artful red, 
Beheld this beauteous stranger there, 
In native charms divinely fair; 
Confusion in their looks they shew'd, 
And with unborrow'd blushes glow'd." 

The October Club consisted of one hundred and fifty Tories and 

High Churchmen, of whom perhaps the most noted was Dean 

Swift (q.v.). Its name perpetuates the fame of its excellent 

October ale. From it the Tatler dated his political news. 

ST. James' Coffee House was a resort of Whig politicians. It 

was the headquarters of the Spectator. 
Will's Coffee House, in Covent Garden, named from its pro- 
prietor, William Unwin, was the resort of those who made 
special pretence to wit and fashion. Here Dryden held court, 
and promulgated the laws of poetic composition. From this 
house were dated the literary items in the Tatler. 
Cock Lane Ghost (1762) : This is one of the most celebrated hoaxes 
ever perpetrated upon a credulous public. It is supposed that the 
daughter of one Parsons, owner of a house in Cock Lane, Smith- 
field, first amused herself by making mysterious sounds with a 
board which she had concealed in bed. This gave rise to rumors 
that the house was haunted, and Parsons, seeking notoriety and 
profit, induced the girl to continue the deception, and gave definite- 
ness to the rumors by alleging that the ghost was that of a Mrs. 
Kent, whom he alleged to have been murdered by her husband. 
On the exposure of the hoax, Parsons was pilloried for impos- 
ture. 
Collects : brief, comprehensive prayers, in a liturgy, as distinguished 

from prayers appealing for specific blessings. 
Collier, Jeremy, Bishop (1650-1726), was a stern critic of the vices of 



136 INDEX. 

the stage after the Restoration. He published, in 1698, A Short 
View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage. 

Commentaries : an autobiographical account by Caius Julius Caesar 
(100-44 B - c -) of his campaigns in Gaul. 

Congreve, William (1670-1729) : a dramatist of the age of Queen 
Anne, especially noted for his brilliancy in dialogue. 

Convocation : a body of ecclesiastics of the Church of England, 
sitting for the purpose of legislating on church matters. The Con- 
vocation of 1689 thwarted the will of William III., who desired so 
to change the oaths and ritual of the State Church as to bring within 
its organization all dissenting Protestant clergymen. 

Corneille. Pierre (1606-1684), the greatest tragic dramatist in France, 
was the author of The Cid, Cinna, Polyencte, and other historical 
dramas in the classical style, besides several comedies. 

Covent Garden was originally the garden of the Convent at West- 
minster. It lies between Westminster and the Old City of London, 
and is now noted for its market for fruit and flowers, and for its 
theatre. (See map, p. 124.) 

Cowley, Dr. Abraham (1618-1667) : an English minor poet, author of 
many poems exhibiting some ability, but tedious. They include 
many odes and one epic, the Davideis. 

Cowper. William (1664-1723) : a Whig statesman, who held the 
position of Lord Chancellor under Anne from 1705-1710. 

Cowper, William (1731-1800) : one of the tenderest and sweetest of 
England's minor poets, a man of remarkable delicacy and sensi- 
tiveness of spirit. All his more important poems, The Task, John 
Gilpin's Ride, The Translation of the Iliad and the Odyssey, were 
due to suggestions made by friends, which were seized upon by bis 
sensitive nature and elaborated by his genius. 

Coyer, L'Abbe (1707-1782): tutor to the Prince of Turenne, and 
author of several sportive and serious works, Decouverte de T Isle 
Frivole, Les Bagatelles Morales, etc. 

Craggs, Addison's successor as Secretary of State, died in 1721. It 
was in a letter to Craggs written in 17 15 that the first prose draft of 
Pope's Character of Alliens (q.v.) originally appeared. 

Curll, Edmund (1675-1745), was a bookseller of the age of Queen 
Anne, noted because of his relations with Pope, Bolingbroke, and 
other prominent men. 

Dante (1265-1321) was the greatest Italian poet. His chief work was 
The Divine Comedy, an epic poem in three parts, the Inferno, the 
Purgatorio, and the Paradiso, treating of the penalties of sin, the pro- 
cess of purification, and the state of the redeemed in heaven. 

Dennis, John (1657-1734) : a dramatist and literary critic. Himself a 
worse than mediocre writer, he vented his spite at his own failure 
to win praise by savage attacks on Pope, Addison, and other 



INDEX. 137 

authors more successful than himself. (See Pope's Dunciad, 
I., 106.) 

Dickens, Charles (1812-1870) : English novelist. This essay was 
published in 1843 when The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, 
The Old Curiosity Shop, and Barnaby Rudge had made Dickens's 
popularity assured ; but his strongest and ripest work, in David 
Copperfield, Little Dorrit, and The Tale of Two Cities, had not yet 
been given to the world. 

Doria : The family of Doria was the leading house in Genoa for many 
generations. Andrea Doria (1466-1560) was the most noted naval 
commander in Italian history, defending his native state against 
her Italian rivals (Venice and Pisa), and against the aggressions of 
foreign powers (France, Germany, and the Turks). 

Dorset, Charles Sackville, Earl of (1637-1706), was a courtier and 
patron of the fine arts, and composed mediocre satires and songs. 

Drury Lane: celebrated for more than two hundred years as the site 
of one of the best-known London theatres. (See map, p. 125.) 

Dryden, John (1631-1700), Poet Laureate of England, was the acknowl- 
edged head of English men of letters in the generation that followed 
Milton. He gave shape to the new literary movement toward scru- 
pulous perfection of technique (due to the influence of the French 
school of Corneille, Racine, and Boileau) that culminated in the work 
of Pope and Addison. He was the author of the most brilliant sat- 
ires in the language {Absalom and Ahitophel, MacFlecknoe) , of 
numerous religious and political poems (Religio Laid, The Hind 
and the Panther), and of many tragedies and translations. The 
latter included not only works in foreign tongues (e.g. Tht ^Eneid), 
but also English works written in a form or style counter to the 
prevailing taste. His life was disturbed by reason of his attitude 
toward the political troubles of the time, but his literary supremacy 
was undisputed. Among his attempts to " modernize " early works 
is included an opera called The State of Innocence and Fall of Man, 
based on Paradise Lost. For this attempt Milton had given the 
cynical permission, " Ay, you may tag my verses." 

Dubois, Cardinal (1656-1723) : Tutor of the Duke of Orleans (the 
nephew of Louis XIV.), and his political adviser while he held the 
position of Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. 

Duenna: a comedy by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, produced in 1775. 

Duke. Richard (1655-1707) : a third-rate theologian and poet. 

Dunciad: Alexander Pope's most ambitious satire, first published in 
1728. It was a poem originally in three volumes, later expanded 
to four, and was directed against the quarrelsome horde of lesser 
literary writers and critics who ventured to dispute Pope's decisions 
in literary matters, or to criticise his own work. It was constructed 
as a mock-epic poem, celebrating the glory of the reign of the 



138 INDEX. 

" King of Dulness," Lewis Theobald, with whom Pope quarrelled 
over their rival editions of Shakespeare's works. In the revised 
edition (1742), Theobald was displaced, and Colley Gibber, the 
object of Pope's latest antipathy, was raised to the position of hero. 

Dunkirk, the extreme northern town on the coast of France, was 
captured by the English in 1651, and was restored to France by 
Charles II. in 1662 for four million pounds. 

Eldon, Lord (1751-1838) : Lord Chancellor of England during most of 
the period between 1801-1827. He was not an able statesman, but 
held his position by virtue of his strict adherence to the conserva- 
tive Tory principles, especially in their opposition to religious re- 
forms. He resented the liberalism of Canning, and resigned when 
the latter became chief of the ministry in 1827. {See p. xxvii.) 

Electoral Prince of Hanover: the great grandson of James I. who 
ascended the throne of England as George I. {See p. xxiv. ) 

Erasmus (1467-1536) : an eminent Dutch scholar and writer, and a 
master of the classical tongues, all his productions being in Latin. 

Etherege, Sir George (1636-1690) : one of the corrupt dramatists of 
the Restoration. The character of his work may be judged by the 
title of his leading drama, The Alan of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter. 

Eugene, Prince, of Savoy (1663-1736) : leading imperial general in the 
Spanish Succession War, in which he wrested Italy from the French 
under Catinat {q.v.). His visit to England in 1711 to urge a con- 
tinuance of the alliance against Louis XIV. is referred to in the 
Spectator, No. 269. 

Euripides (480-406 B.C.) : the latest of the trio of great Greek tragic 
dramatists (Sophocles, /Eschylus, Euripides). He wrote about eighty 
dramas, of which the Electra is one; eighteen still exist. 

Faustina : the name of two Roman empresses of the second century, 
both of notoriously corrupt character. One was the wife of Anto- 
ninus Pius, and the other was her daughter, wife of the philosopher 
and moralist, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 

Fielding, Henry (1707-1754) : with Dr. Samuel Richardson, the creator 
of the modern "novel" as a literary type. His most celebrated 
novel is Tom Jones. The hero of this novel is in love with Sophia 
Western, whose father, Squire Western, is a typical British country 
gentleman of the old school. Amelia, which followed Tom Jones, 
is the story of a woman whose fidelity and tenderness elevate and 
finally redeem the character of her worthless husband, Booth. 

Filicaja, Vincenzio (1642-1707) : a Florentine poet, author of brilliant 
patriotic odes and sonnets; but certainly not the greatest lyric poet 
of modern times, as asserted in H 58 of the Essay on Addison. 

Fox, Henry (1705-1774) : a parliamentary opponent of William Pitt. 
He was Secretary of War in 1746, and Paymaster of the Forces in 
1757. He was raised to the peerage as Lord Holland in 1762. 



INDEX. 139 

Fox, Charles James (1749-1806) : son of the preceding; a leading 
statesman of the period of the American revolution. For the char- 
acter of both, see Macaulay's Essay on Lord Holland. 

Fracastorius, Hieronymus (1483-1553) : (the Latin equivalent of 
Fracastoro Girolamo) a physician of Verona, author of poems and 
medical works written exclusively in the Latin tongue. 

Fraguier, Pere (1666-1728) : a French savant and classical scholar, a 
member of the French Academy ('/.v.). He wrote historical and 
literary dissertations, and various Latin poems. 

Frederick the Great (1712-1786), king of Prussia, was an ardent ad- 
mirer of French culture, and sought in every way to foster it in 
Prussia. He composed several works in French, and encouraged 
Voltaire, Diderot, and other learned Frenchmen to take up their 
abode at his court. 

Garth, Sir Samuel (1660-1719) : a poet and physician, a member of 
the Kit Cat Club, and a friend of Addison, for whose Cato he fur- 
nished the epilogue. 

Garter, Order of the : an English order of knighthood, membership 
in which may be conferred by the sovereign as a mark of especial 
honor. Among the knights are included the sovereign and the 
princes of the blood royal. 

Gay, John (1685-1731), a friend of Pope and Swift, was the author of 
several humorous poems and plays. As his literary work furnished 
him but a scanty living, he added to his income by serving as sec- 
retary, first to the Duchess of Manchester, and later to Lord Clar- 
endon. He also sought the patronage of the Hanoverians on their 
accession to the throne. His Beggars' Opera, published in 1727, 
brought him fame and money. 

Gazette: the London Gazette was a publication founded in 1665 as 
the organ of the Government for the publication of official an- 
nouncements, legal notices, political intelligence, etc. It was owned 
by the Government, and conducted by a Government appointee. 

Genoa: a state in northwestern Italy. It was subject to France from 
1499-1528, when its independence was won under the leadership 
of Andrea Doria (o.v.). From that time until the French Revolu- 
tion its government was republican in form, although oligarchic in 
essence. Its chief officers bore the ancient title of Doge (or Duke) . 

Georgics : a poem of rural life, by Virgil. It is divided into four 
books, treating of the cultivation of the soil, the propagation of trees 
and vines, the raising of horses and cattle, and the care of bees. 

Godolphin, Sidney, Earl of (1645-1712), because of his extraordinary 
financial abilities, held practical control of the finances of England 
during the administrations of Charles II., William III., and Anne. 
Godolphin espoused the cause of James II. against William, and, 
adhering to h ; s Tory principles, was removed from office during 



140 INDEX. 

the latter part of William's reign, when the Whig party was in the 
ascendant. After Anne's accession he was made Lord High 
Treasurer, and held this office until 1710, when the growing power 
of his rival, Harley {q.v.), forced his dismissal. 

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang (1749-1832) : the greatest genius in the 
history of German literature. The dramatic poem of Faust, his 
masterpiece, is a profound study of the strife of man's soul with his 
own nature, expressed in terms of the old German Faust-legend. 
In this legend, Faust, desirous of sounding every depth of human 
experience, sells his soul to Mephistopheles, the Spirit of Evil, on 
condition that the supernatural powers of the demon shall be at his 
command for a term of years. 

Granville, George (1667-1735) : a Tory statesman and poet. He was 
Secretary of War in 1710, and intrigued for the restoration of the 
Stuarts in 1714. He was the author of two plays {Heroic Love, The 
British Enchantress) and some unimportant verse. 

Gray, Thomas (1716-1771), was the author of some of the noblest 
reflective poetry in the English language. He had a lofty poetic 
imagination, profound classical scholarship, and a sensitive taste. 
He aimed at Greek perfection of style, and showed the influence 
of Greek literary models in his Pindaric Odes and his Elegy in a 
Country Churchyard. 

Grub Street, now called Milton Street, was for many years the habitat 
of impecunious men of letters, who eked out their income by doing 
piece-work for publishers, such as compiling books of reference, 
making indexes, copying manuscripts, etc. {See map, p. 125.) 

Gwynn, Eleanor (1650-1687) : an actress of the Restoration and a 
favorite of Charles II. He seems to have conceived for her a 
genuine affection, as almost his latest words were an expression 
of solicitude lest she should suffer from want after his death. 

Hale, Sir Matthew (1609-1676) : Lord Chief Justice of England under 
Charles II., and a notable pattern of uprightness in an age of cor- 
ruption, both in his official career and in his ethical writings. 

Halifax, Charles Montague, Earl of ( 1661-1715) : a Whig statesman, 
financier, and patron of letters. His devices for raising money for 
the wars of William III. {see pp. xix, xx) led to the beginning of 
the English national debt, and to the establishment of the Bank of 
England. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer under William III., 
was out of power during the Tory ascendency under Anne and 
was restored to power only at her death. He served as Prime 
Minister from the accession of George I. until his own death in 1715. 

Hamilton, Gerard (1729-1796), a member of the House of Commons, 
was popularly known as " Single-speech Hamilton," because in 
1765 he delivered one brilliant oration, and with one exception 
never again attempted to address the House. 



INDEX. 141 

Hampton Court Palace : a royal residence situated in the village 
of Hampton, on the Thames, fifteen miles southwest of London. 
It was built by Cardinal Wolsey and presented by him to King 
Henry VIII., and was used as a royal residence by all the later 
Tudor and Stuart monarchs. 

Harley, Robert, Earl of Oxford (1661-1724), was a politician rather 
than a statesman, but exerted a strong influence upon Queen 
Anne during part of her reign. Originally holding office, first as 
Speaker and later as Secretary of State in the Whig Ministry of 
Godolphin, he intrigued with the Tories to overthrow his chief, and 
in 1710 had gained enough influence to secure his dismissal. A 
year later Harley was made Lord High Treasurer in a Tory min- 
istry, and bent his efforts toward bringing the Spanish Succession 
War (a Whig war) to a close. In 1714 his late ally, Bolingbroke 
(q.v.), now coveting his position, undermined his influence as 
Harley had undermined that of Godolphin, and procured bis dis- 
missal. He was later impeached by his enemies, but was acquitted, 
and lived in retirement until his death. 

Haymarket Square : the site of one of the principal London theatres, 
thence called "The Haymarket." {See map, p. 124.) 

Herculaneum. : a town at the foot of Vesuvius, buried by an eruption 
in the year 79 A.D. Its position was discovered in 1706, but its 
excavation was not begun until 1738. 

Herder, J. (1744-1803), was a philosopher, a theologian, and a literary 
critic, while in scientific speculation he was far in advance of his 
contemporaries. He learned much from Kant, and imparted much 
to Goethe, the two greatest thinkers of modern Germany. 

Herodotus (fifth century B.C.) : author of a History of Greece in nine 
books, covering the period from 700-479 B.C. It is of the greatest 
importance to students of Ancient History, although of course 
Herodotus had no conception of the necessity of sifting and verify- 
ing alleged historical facts. 

Hill, Aaron (1685-1749) : a lesser poet and miscellaneous writer. 
He was manager of Drury Lane Theatre, and composed several 
dramas. He was attacked by Pope in the Dunciad, but in so veiled 
a manner that Pope was able, later, to deny that Hill was the 
person referred to. 

Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679) : author of works which profoundly 
affected the thought of his time. His chief work, Leviathan, ex- 
pounded his philosophy of the origin and sanctions of government. 
He claimed that government rests on the necessity of restraining 
the masses, and the power of a few men to control the rest. 

Holland House : a mansion in Kensington, northwest of the old City 
of London, built in 1607 by Sir Walter Cope. His daughter mar- 
ried Henry Rich (son of the Earl of Warwick), who was later 



142 INDEX. 

created first Earl of Holland. As the mansion passed to the Hol- 
land branch of the Warwick family, the names of Rich, Warwick, 
and Holland are all associated with its history. Addison married 
the widow of the sixth Earl of Warwick. 

Later the mansion passed by purchase and subsequent in- 
heritance into the possession of Henry Fox {g.v.), in whose interest 
the now extinct title of Lord Holland was revived. His grand- 
son made Holland House a social centre and a rendezvous for 
noted persons. Macaulay says elsewhere: "From 1799 to 1840 
there was hardly in England a distinguished man in politics, sci- 
ence, or literature who had not been a guest in Holland House." 

Holy Week : the last week in Lent, often called Passion Week, as 
being the anniversary of the final scenes of suffering in the life 
of Christ. In the austerity with which it is celebrated it forms a 
counterpart to the week of " carnival " {g.v.) which precedes 
Lent. 

Hoole, John (1727-1803), translated into English verse the two great 
Italian epics of the Renaissance, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and 
Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. 

Horace (65-8 B.C.) : the leading lyric poet of the Augustan age of Latin 
literature. His Odes, Epodes, Satires, and Epistles have always been 
the model and the despair of modern poets. 

Hough, John (1651-1743), was elected President of Magdalen College, 
Oxford, in 1687, by the Fellows, but was arbitrarily removed by 
James II. He was reinstated the next year, and held the position 
until 1690, when he was made Bishop of Oxford. 

Hume, David (1711-1776), philosopher and historian, was the first 
writer who ever attempted to treat English history in such a way 
as to trace the causes that have determined its course. His History 
of England, although brilliant, is biassed by his Tory political views, 
and by his hostility to the Christian religion. 

Hume, Joseph (1777-1855), was a parliamentary reformer, and an un- 
compromising antagonist of every existing type of political abuses, 
such as extravagant expenditures, flogging in the army, imprison- 
ment for debt, grievous trade restrictions, etc. 

Hurd, Richard, D.D. (1720-1808) : a friend of Bishop Warburton (g.v.). 
Hurd, as Warburton's biographer, sustains the same relation to him 
that Boswell (g.v.) sustains to Samuel Johnson. 

Infanta Catharine, the daughter of King John II. of Portugal, married 
to Charles Stuart (afterwards King Charles II. of England). 

Inns of Court : associations of English lawyers possessing special privi- 
leges of the highest importance, among them that of admitting can- 
didates to the practice of law. There are four Inns of Court, all 
taking their names from the historic buildings occupied by them, 
namely, " Lincoln's Inn," " The Inner Temple," " The Middle Tern- 



INDEX. 143 

pie," and " Gray's Inn." The word " Templar" therefore means a 
lawyer who is a member of the Inner or the Middle Temple. 

Ireland, Samuel William Henry (1777-1835) : author of two dramas, 
Vortigem and Henry II., which he claimed to have been written 
by Shakespeare, and to have been recently discovered among some 
papers bequeathed by that author to his friend, " William Hen rye 
Irelaunde." 

Jack Pudding (properly written jack-pudding) : a buffoon or clown. 

Jenyns, Soame (1704-1787) : the author of a work entitled View of the 
Infernal Evidence of the Christian Religion, containing speculations 
in regard to the nature of the future life. 

Jersey, Earl of : an extreme Tory member of the Ministry in power at 
the beginning of the reign of Anne; he was dismissed in 1704, when 
Godolphin and Marlborough began to look to the Whigs as their 
main supporters in their policy of continued alliance with the 
European powers against Louis XIV. 

Jerusalem Chamber : a room in the Deanery ot Westminster Abbey, 
so named because it was decorated with a view of Jerusalem. 

Johnson, Samuel (1709-1783), was a great lexicographer, essayist, 
critic, and conversationalist, but not a great dramatist. A defect 
common to all his writings, due in part to his vast classical erudi- 
tion, is his preference for polysyllabic words, and for the stately 
periodic sentences imitated from Latin models. 

His Lives of the Poets contain biographical and critical studies of 
English poets from Cowley to Gray, including Milton, Dryden, 
Pope, Addison, and Swift. His tragedy of Irene (1749), although 
it had the support of Garrick, was withdrawn from the stage after a 
run of only nine days. His story of Rasselas, written under stress 
of poverty, to obtain funds for the burial of his mother, relates how 
Prince Rasselas was confined in a valley in Abyssinia, called " The 
Happy Valley," in order to remove him from any possible share in 
the miseries that swarm in the world. The " ingenious philoso- 
pher " referred to by Macaulay in H 26 proposed to aid Rasselas to 
escape by means of a flying machine, but his first attempts to 
demonstrate the art of flying proved a disastrous failure. 

Jonson, Ben (1573-1637) , was, next to Shakespeare, the greatest drama- 
tist of the age of Elizabeth and James I. His dramas depict strik- 
ing types of character, The Alchemist, Sejanns, Catiline. 

Juvenal (55 ?-i35 ? A.D.) : author of sixteen Latin Satires, which depict 
for us the manners and morals of the early Roman Empire. They 
have been the subject of translation and imitation by many English 
authors, including Dryden and Johnson. 

Kensington : the district of London west of the old City and north of 
Westminster. 

Kneller, Sir Godfrey (1648-1723), court painter to Charles II., was 






144 INDEX. 

knighted by William III. He painted the portraits of nine sover- 
eigns, including all the English sovereigns from Charles II. to 
George I., and those of many members of the Kit Cat Club {g.v.). 
He was the subject of an adulatory poem by Addison. 

Leicester Square : the site of the house occupied by Sir Joshua Rey- 
nolds from 1760 to the end of his life in 1792. {See map, p. 124.) 

Lessing (1729-1781), a German critic and dramatist, first won fame by 
his Vindications, critical writings intended to stimulate appreciation 
of unjustly maligned or forgotten writers. He aided in developing 
a new critical journal, the Litter aturbrie/e, in which he aims to lead 
a revolt against conventional standards of taste in literature. 

Ligurian Coast : the coast of Genoa. 

Livy (59 P..C.-17 A.D.) : the author of a History of Rome, distinguished 
by its vivid, graphic treatment of historical episodes, such as that of 
Hannibal's invasion of Italy (in Bk. XXI). 

Lucan (39-65 A.D.) : the nephew of Seneca and of " Gallio " (q.v. ) ; and 
the author of Pharsalia, or De Bello Civile, an epic poem treating 
of the struggle between Pompey and Julius Caesar. 

Lucian (120-200 A.D) : a Greek satirical writer. His Aitctioyi of Lives 
is a lively skit on philosophy, depicting an attempt of Zeus to sell 
representative philosophers of different sects at auction. 

Lucretius (95-51 B.C.) : the author of a Latin poem in six books 
entitled De Rcrum Natures, containing religious and scientific 
speculations in regard to the origin and nature of the universe, 
which were far in advance of the common belief of his time. 

Lycia : a province in the southwestern part of Asia Minor. Its warriors, 
led by Sarpedon, aided the Trojans during the Siege of Troy. 

Lycidas; a name meaning "white" or " pure-souled," applied by 
Milton to his friend Edward King in his elegy on the latter's death 
by drowning in the Irish Sea. 

Machiavelli (1469-1527) : an Italian statesman, author ot a treatise 
called the Prince, on statecraft as it was conceived in the Mid- 
dle Ages. The method advocated in this famous treatise is so 
repugnant 10 modern ethical ideas, that the author's name has 
become a synonym for an unscrupulous and crafty politician. 

Mackintosh, Sir James (1765-1832) : author of a History of the Revo- 
lution of 1688. 

Macready, William Charles (1793-1873) : an illustrious actor of Shake- 
spearean characters, at one time manager of Drury Lane Theatre. 

Malbranche, Nicolas (1638-1715) : a French philosopher, author of 
De la Recherche de la Verite. He taught that " Human souls exist 
in God as their bodies exist in space," that " God is the cause of 
all changes that take place in the universe," and that " We see all 
things in God." Thus his mysticism is far removed from the 
rationalism that characterizes the philosophy of Hobbes and Hume. 



INDEX. 145 

Malmsbury: a parliamentary borough in Northern Wiltshire. When 
Addison represented this borough he was living in London. 

Mamelukes : Egyptian cavalry forces subject to the Sultan of Turkey, 
that fought under Mourad Bey, the Turkish commander against 
Napoleon Bonaparte in his Egyptian campaign of 1798. 

Manchester, Charles Montague, Earl and Duke of (died, 1722) : a 
Whig statesman, prominent as a diplomatist in the embassies of 
Venice, Paris, and Vienna. In 1719 he was created Duke of Man- 
chester for his services in securing the Hanoverian succession. 

Manilius : a poet of the Augustan age, author of the Astronomicon. 

Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke of (1650-1722) : began his 
career as a page in the service of James, Duke of York. By his 
pleasing personality and his mental ability, unhampered by any 
high ethical standard, he rose to high positions of honor and trust 
in the army and the state. He was raised to the peerage by James 
(now King James II.), and was appointed General of the forces 
detailed to defend the king against William of Orange in 1688. 
Churchill, however, abandoned the cause of the Stuarts, and was 
rewarded by William with the title of Earl of Marlborough. 

Churchill had married a court beauty named Sarah Jennings, an 
intimate friend of James's daughter Anne. On the accession of 
Anne to the throne the Earl and his Lady became virtual rulers of 
the kingdom. At home Marlborough dictated the policy of his 
son-in-law, Godolphin, the ostensible Prime Minister; abroad, as 
commander-in-chief of the English forces in the War of the 
Spanish Succession, he was equally supreme: while Lady Marl- 
borough, as Mistress of the Robes, Keeper of the Privy Purse, 
and confidential adviser of the Queen, was the dominant power 
at Court. 

Marlborough's brilliant and successful campaigns on the Danube 
and in Flanders, marked by the victories of Blenheim, Ramillies, 
Oudenarde, and Malplaquet, crushed the French defence, ultimately 
forcing the Peace of Utrecht, and won for him the highest honor, the 
title of Duke of Marlborough. But the Queen had meanwhile 
grown weary of being dominated by Sarah Jennings, whose most 
prominent traits were her imperious disposition and her pugnacity. 
Through the intrigues of Harley (q.v.) the Tories once more forced 
their way into power. Godolphin and Sunderland were dismissed 
in 1712 (see H 91) and the enemies of Marlborough secured his 
impeachment on the charge of having embezzled funds entrusted 
to him for the prosecution of the war. He was in disgrace until 
the accession of George I., when he was again made commander- 
in-chief of the army. He died of apoplexy in 1722. 
Marli : a village five miles north of Versailles. 
Martial (last of the ^.rst century) : a brilliant Latin epigrammatist and 



146 INDEX. 

lyric poet, author of more than a thousand witty and polished epi- 
grams on manners, persons, and incidents of his time. 

Marvel, Andrew (1621-1678), was an intimate friend of Milton, and 
served as bis assistant in the Latin Secretaryship. He wrote some 
noble and beautiful poems, notably his Horatian Ode on Cromwell's 
return from Ireland. 

Massillon (1663-1742) : a French ecclesiastic, preacher to Louis XV., 
distinguished for the eloquence and persuasive force of his sermons. 

Medici, Lorenzo di (1448-1492) : a Florentine banker, and virtual ruler 
of Tuscany , patron of art, letters, and sciences. 

Menander (342-290 B.C.) : the author of one hundred comedies, of 
which only fragments remain. External evidences indicate that his 
works, like Addison's, appealed to a cultivated sense of humor. 

Mephistophiles : the leading character in Goethe's Faust (q.v.). 

Metamorphoses : the chief poetical work of the Latin poet, Publius 
Ovidius Xaso ("Ovid," B.C. 43-A.D. 18). It consists of a collection 
of mythological fables in fifteen books, narrating various transforma- 
tions undergone by the world and its inhabitants through the inter- 
vention of the gods. 

Milan, the second in size of Italian cities, contains the third largest 
cathedral in the world, a Gothic building constructed entirely of 
marble, and covered with the most elaborate ornamentation. Its 
exterior is adorned with six thousand statues. 

Misenus : the trumpeter of the fleet of .Eneas. The .-Eiicid, VI., 162, 
describes how a Triton, jealous of his music, dragged him from 
a rock and plunged him to his death in the waves. 

Mohocks or Mohawks : a club of dissolute young men, organized in 
London in 1711. Its members found amusement in outrages upon 
persons who went abroad in the streets at night. (See A, H 147.) 

Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley (1690-1762) : a wit, woman of letters, 
and society leader of the eighteenth century ; friend of Addison and, 
until their fierce quarrel (see A,U 142), of Pope. The lampoon re- 
ferred to in the passage indicated above, charges her (under the 
name of Sappho) with slovenliness of dress and person. 

Newdigate Prize : a prize given at Oxford University for the best 
original production in English verse. To win it is now esteemed a 
great honor, since the victor's name is enrolled with those of Heber, 
Faber, Arthur Stanley, Ruskin, Shairp, Matthew Arnold, etc. 

Newmarket : an English town famous for its racing course, where 
seven important races are held annually. 

Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727), the world's most profound and original 
scientific investigator, was also one of the most gifted mathemati- 
cians in an age of great mathematicians. He was Professor of 
Mathematics in Cambridge University, and President of the Royal 
Society. 



INDEX. 147 

North, Frederick Lord (1732-1792) : the minister who, by his subser- 
vient attitude toward the narrow-minded king, George III., and by 
his consequent arbitrary attitude toward the American colonists, 
was chiefly responsible for the defection of the thirteen colonies 
that formed the United States. 

Nottingham, Daniel Finch, 2d Earl of (1647-1730) : as representa- 
tive of the Tory party, he was Secretary of State under William 
III. in 1689, was displaced by a Whig in 1694, and having been re- 
appointed by Anne in 1702, was again dismissed when the Whig 
influence began to gain the ascendency in 1704. 

Oldham, John (1653-1683): a satirist contemporary with Dryden, 
author of four satires against the Order of Jesuits. 

Orleans, Philippe, Duke of (1674-1723), was the Regent of France 
dining the minority of King Louis XV. (1715-1723). Because' of 
his early training in vice under the tutelage of the unscrupulous 
Dubois {q.v.), he led a life of debauchery, but was a patron of the 
fine arts, and a popular ruler. 

Paestum, situated about forty miles southeast of Naples, was a flourish- 
ing city in the fifth century before Christ. It contained no less than 
three temples, of which only ruins now remain. 

Palmerston, Henry Temple, Viscount (1784-1865) : a leading Brit- 
ish statesman of this century, who exhibited preeminent abilities in 
the direction of the department of Foreign Affairs. He was twice 
made Prime Minister in 1855-1858 and in 1859-1865. At the time 
the Essay on Addison was published, 1843, Palmerston had already 
guided the nation through the difficulties created by revolutions in 
France, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal. 

Pantheon: a Roman temple built by the Emperor Agrippa in 27 B.C., 
and originally dedicated to all the gods. It was rebuilt in 610 A.D., 
and was converted into a Christian church. It is notable as being 
the only perfectly preserved ancient building in Rome. 

Farnell, Thomas (1679-1717) : a friend of Harley, Swift, and Pope. 
He assisted Pope in the translation of Homer's works, and com- 
posed the introductory memoir of Homer for the translation of the 
Iliad. His own productions include The Hermit, Night, Piece on 
Death, The Queens Peace ( = the Treaty of Utrecht), The Battle of 
the Progs and Mice (from Homer), and Biblical poems. 

Paul Pry : The name of the chief character in a drama written by John 
Poole (1792-1879), first produced at the Hay market in 1825, and 
thereafter very popular. Pry is an idle, inquisitive fellow, always 
meddling with the affairs of other people. 

Peel, Sir Rohert (1788-1850) : a prominent financier and statesman, 
twice Prime Minister of England. 

Petrarch (1304-1374) : an Italian poet and historian of high rank. His 
compositions of most abiding interest are a series of love poems 



148 INDEX. 

(sonnets and songs) addressed to " Laura," on whom he has con- 
ferred an immortality only less secure than that conferred by Dante 
upon " Beatrice" in the Divine Comedy. 

Philips, John (1676-1708), whom his monument in Westminster 
Abbey calls a second Milton, composed three popular poems. 
The Splendid Shilling was an imitation of Milton's Paradise Lost, 
Cider an imitation of Virgil's Georgics {q.v.), and Blenheim a rival 
of Addison's Campaign. 

Phillipps, Ambrose (1671-1749), was a friend of Addison and Steele. 
He was the author of six pastorals and several dramas, and was a 
contributor to the Guardian and the Freethinker. 

Pickwick, Samuel : the leading character in one of Dickens's earliest 
and most popular novels. 

Pindar, a Greek poet of the fifth century B.C. He is called the 
"Theban Eagle" because of the soaring imagination and spirit 
exhibited in his triumphal Odes, the only complete examples of his 
work extant. 

Plato (427-347 B.C.) : the greatest Athenian philosopher. 

Plutarch (66-120) : the author of a series of Parallel Lives, biograph- 
ical sketches in Greek, treating of twenty-three Greek and twenty- 
three Roman public characters. These biographies, because of their 
historical and literary value, are highly prized by students. 

Pollio (76 B.C. -4 A.D.) : a versatile Roman man of letters and a patron 
of artists. Among his proteges were Virgil and Horace. 

Polybius (204-122 B.C.) : a Greek historian, who composed a history 
in forty books, treating of the gradual subjugation of the civilized 
world by Rome from 200-146 B.C. The work is characterized by 
fulness of research, accuracy of statement, and sound judgment. 

Pompeii : a city south of Mt. Vesuvius, almost entirely buried by an 
eruption of ashes from that mountain in the year 79 A.D., and redis- 
covered and excavated by degrees during the last two centuries. 

Pompignan, Franc de (1709-1784) : a French philosopher who, having 
been elected to the French Academy, gave so much offence to the 
members that, with the aid of Voltaire's sarcasms, they drove him 
into retirement at a distance from Paris. 

Pope, Alexander (1688-1744) : the -leading poet of the age of Queen 
Anne, and with Dryden the most brilliant of English satirists. His 
character exhibited a curious compound of the most brilliant intel- 
lectual gifts with so much vanity and ill nature as to lessen the 
pleasure derived from those gifts both by himself and by his readers. 
He was an acknowledged master of the technique of poetical com- 
position ; he composed didactic, reflective, satirical, and sportive 
verse that won the applause of the literary world ; the translations 
from Homer earned him a competence, yet he was never happy, 
because always involved in a quarrel with erstwhile friends. 



INDEX. 149 

Of the works mentioned by Macaulay, the Essay on Criticism, 
written in his twentieth year, was a masterly handling of a theme 
(rules of poetic composition and criticism) already well treated by 
Horace (q.v.) and Boileau {q.v.). It is in the form of a treatise in 
three parts, written in the heroic couplet. The Rape of the Lock is 
described on p. 119, in the note on 81, n. 

Posilipo : a mountain northwest of Naples, remarkable for its tunnel, 
755 yards in length, which was excavated probably before the 
Christian era, but according to local tradition was constructed by 
the poet Virgil through his magic arts. A portion of it bears the 
name of " Virgil's Tomb." 

Prior, Matthew (1664-1721) : a man of humble birth, who through 
talent and patronage was enabled to become a diplomatist of some 
note. He had a share in most of the important foreign transactions 
of William II. and Anne; was a friend of Halifax {q.v.), jersey 
{q.v.), and Haiiev. He was a writer of many rhymed fables, and 
of much society verse, all popular but ephemeral. 

Prudentius (348-405) : the author of some early Christian poems in 
the Latin language. 

Puck : a character in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, who 
exercises his supernatural powers in making sportive mischief 
among the lovers and clowns of the play. 

Pulteney, William, Earl of Bath (1682-1764), was originally a 
co-worker with Walpole (q.v.), but conceiving that he was 
ignored by the latter, he put himself at the head of a group of 
rebellious Whigs who called themselves "The Patriots." {See Int., 
p. xxvii.) 

Rabbinical Literature was the work of Jewish expounders of the Law 
of Moses, and contained many mystical doctrines. 

Racine, Jean (1639-1699) : the greatest French tragic dramatist. 
During his somewhat dissipated earlier career his efforts were con- 
fined almost entirely to the dramatic treatment of historical char- 
acters {Mithridate, Ephigenie, I 'hear e). With increasing years he 
became more earnest, and his later subjects were taken from sacred 
history (Esther, Athalie, Cantiques Spirituelles) . 

Raleigh, Sir Walter (1552-1618) : an English courtier, adventurer, 
and writer of the Elizabethan Age. 

Ravenna : a city of Northeastern Italy, the scene of an apparition 
of a " Spectre Horseman," as described by Boccaccio. 

Reynolds, Sir Joshua (1723-1792), was a celebrated portrait painter, 
the first president of the " Royal Academy of Painting," and the 
founder of the celebrated club which included Samuel Johnson and 
Boswell, Burke, Goldsmith, and Garrick. 

Rhaetian Alps : that portion of the Alpine range which separates 
Lombardy from Eastern Switzerland. 



150 INDEX. 

Richardson, Samuel (1689-1761), the first English novelist, was a 
journeyman printer in early life, and later a master-printer and 
publisher. It was only when he was fifty-one years old that he 
wrote Pamela, the first of the series of three novels that won him 
fame and the title of " Creator of the English Novel." 

Kimini: a city of Italy on the upper Adriatic. The story of the un- 
happy love of Francesca de Rimini for the noble brother of her 
brutal husband, and of the punishment of their sin, forms the best- 
known single episode in Dante's Divine Comedy. 

Robertson, Rev. William (1721-1793) : Royal Historiographer of 
Scotland ; author of an able History of Scotland, a History 0/ Amer- 
ica, and a History of the Reign of Charles V., which won warm 
praise from critics like Hume, Walpole, and Lord Chesterfield. 

Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of (1647-1680) : a witty, dissolute 
courtier, a favorite of King Charles II.; author of many verses, but 
of no poetry. 

Rosicrucians : a secret society dating from the fourteenth century, whose 
members professed to be adepts at magic arts, and to possess the 
power to control the deities (sylphs, gnomes, fays) which reside in 
the elements (earth, air, water, fire). 

Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718) : Poet Laureate to George I. ; author of 
Tamerlane, fane Grey, and other tragrdies. 

Rubicon : the stream which separated the Gallic province governed by 
Julius Caesar in 49 K.C. from* Roman territory. Plutarch, in his 
Life of Ccesar, and Lucan, in his Pharsalia, mention how Caesar 
hesitated on the northern bank before crossing to contest with 
Pompey the supremacy at Rome. Caesar, in his autobiographical 
Commentaries, does not mention the act. 

Russell, House of: a noble English family, dating from the Norman 
Conquest. It has given to the state many of its notable public 
servants. Among these are the first Duke of Bedford, Edward 
Russell, Admiral of the English Navy, and also 

Russell, Lord John (1792-1878): the statesman who, by his bill pro- 
viding for changes in boroughs to secure more equitable division 
of representation in England {see Int., p. xxviii), brought about 
the most notable advance of this century in English political con- 
ditions. He was Prime Minister from 1841 to 1846. 

Rutulians : a people inhabiting the coast of Italy, whose defeat by 
^Eneas upon his arrival there is described in Virgil's .-Eneid. 

St. James : a palace situated on the street called Pall Mall in London, 
occupied by the monarchs of England since the time of Henry VIII. 
Hence the name " St. James's" has become a common expression 
for the " Court of Great Britain." 

St. John : see Bolingbroke. 

St. Peter's : a cathedral at Rome, the largest Christian church edifice 



INDEX. 151 

in the world, constructed and adorned by Bramante, Michael An- 
gelo, and Raphael. 

Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) : an Italian painter of landscapes, gener- 
ally of a wild, savage type, and also of historical pictures. 

Sannazaro (1458-1530) : an Italian poet of the Renaissance, who owes 
his reputation to his Italian pastoral medley of prose and verse, 
called the Arcadia, and to some Latin lyrics. 

Santa Croce : a church edifice in Florence, which contains monuments 
of Dante, Gallio, Machiavelli, Michael Angelo, Alfieri, etc. 

Saul : a tragedy based on Scripture history, by Alfieri {g.v.). 

Savage, Richard (1697-1743) : a dissolute and impecunious poet of 
small talents, a friend of Aaron Hill, of Pope, and of Samuel Johnson. 

Savoy : formerly a state lying between the Rhone and the Alps, south 
of Switzerland. Its rulers shrewdly made use of their geographi- 
cal position to increase their importance in European politics by 
throwing their influence on the side of France, Germany, or Spain, 
as their immediate interests dictated. 

Scherezade : the wife of the Sultan of the Indies, who relates to him 
the tales called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. 

Schiller (1759-1805) : a German dramatist and poet. His master- 
pieces, dealing mainly with historical characters, include William 
Tell, three dramas on the life of Wallenstein, and Mary Stuart. 

Scott, Sir Walter (1771-1832), was probably the most popular English 
novelist that ever lived, in point of the number of his works that 
reached celebrity and the extensive sales which they commanded. 

Seals : to acquire validity, public documents in England must receive 
an impression from one of several " seals," according to their char- 
acter. (The conditions hereafter explained prevailed in the seven- 
teenth century.) The Great Seal (employed as the emblem of 
royalty on the Sovereign's proclamations summoning and pro- 
roguing Parliament, etc.) was always placed in charge of the Lord 
Chancellor, or of a special officer called the Lord Keeper of the 
Great Seal. It could not be used on any document that had not 
already received the Privy Seal. Thus the Privy Seal served as a 
check upon the action of the Chancellor. This seal, which was in 
charge of the officer called the Lord Privy Seal, was also used to 
render valid all minor state documents, these having already been 
certified by minor officers with the Signet Seals. 1 

Seatonian Prize : a prize awarded annually at Cambridge University, 
England, for the best poem on a religious subject. 

Shaw. " Lifeguardsman Shaw " was a pugilist of giant frame, who 
entered the army and won celebrity at the battle of Waterloo. 

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816) : author of exceedingly 

1 The Privy Seal is now used only on minor documents, such as grants from 
the Crown (called " Letters Patent"). 



152 INDEX. 

popular comedies, e.g. The Rivals, The Duenna, The School for 
Scandal. 

Shrewsbury, Charles Talbot, Duke of (1660-1718), was a leading 
statesman during the reign of William III., Anne, and George I. 
He played a prominent part in securing the accession of the Hano- 
verians, and was made Lord High Treasurer by George I. 

Sidonius Apollinaris (430-483 a.d.) : a churchman, and author of 
pretentious Latin poems in twenty-four books. v . 

Silius Italicus (25-101 A.D.) : author of an uninspired Latin poem, 
Tunica, in seventeen books, dreary and prolonged. It treats of 
the careers of Hannibal, Scipio, and other heroes of the Punjc 
wars. 

Smalridge, George D. (1663-1719) : Bishop of Bristol, an eloquent 
pulpit orator. 

Smollett, Tobias (1721-1771), completes, with Richardson and Field- 
ing {g.v.), the trio of great novelists of the generation that saw the 
birth of that type of literature. His chief works are Roderick Ran- 
dom and Humphrey Clinker. 

Somers, John, Lord Somers (1652-1716), was the leader, official or un- 
official, of the Whig party during the reigns of William I II. and Anne. 
Indeed, he was a leader in the events that gave rise to that party, for 
he acted as counsel for the defence in the trial of the seven bishops 
{see Int., p. xviii), and was chairman of the committee appointed to 
frame the immortal Declaration of Rights {ibid.). He was appointed 
Attorney General, then Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, {see Seals) 
and later Lord High Chancellor, by William III. His impeachment 
by his Tory enemies, in 1701, although unsuccessful, forced him 
thereafter to maintain a subordinate position until his death, except 
during the two years of Whig supremacy (1708-1710), when he 
was Lord President of the Council. 

Somerset, Charles Seymour, Duke of (1661-1748) : known as the 
" Proud Duke. of Somerset," because of his haughty bearing and 
ostentatious mode of living. The Seymour family has given to 
England a queen and a regent of the kingdom, and its members 
have intermarried with many persons of the blood royal. 

Somerville, William (1767-1855) : author of a long poem called The 
Chase. 

Sophocles (496-405 B.C.) : a tragic poet of Athens, the rival of /Eschylus 
{g.v.) ; author of Antigone, Ajax, CEdipus Tyrannus, and other 
plays, all notable for their mastery over dramatic situations, their 
character delineation, and their pathos. 

Spence, Joseph (1699-1768) : Professor of Poetry and of History in 
Oxford University, a friend of Pope and Walpole. At his death 
he left a collection of anecdotes of the celebrities that he had 
known. 



INDEX. 153 

Sporus : a name applied by Pope, in the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735), 
to Lord John Hervey, the husband of one of Pope's friends, whom 
he attacked repeatedly in his various satires. 

Spring Garden : the name of a pleasure resort of the early Stuart 
monarchs, adjoining their palace of Whitehall, containing bathing 
ponds, archery butts, a pheasant yard, and a bowling green. Aft t 
the Restoration this resort was abolished and the name was trans- 
ferred to a new garden which was opened at Vauxhall. 

Statius (45-96 A.D.) : a Roman court poet, author of a tedious epic 
poem in twelve books, the Thebais, based on an episode in the his- 
tory of Thebes, and also of numerous lyric poems of more merit. 

Steele, Sir Kichard (1672-1729), was the son of an attorney in Dublin. 
He was a schoolmate of Addison at the Charterhouse {q.v.), and 
later entered Christ College, Oxford, but left college after three 
years to enlist in the Horse Guards. He gained notice from the 
literary world by the publication of several dramas, was introduced 
into the Kit Cat Club, became an attendant of Prince George, con- 
sort of Queen Anne, and was appointed Gazetteer {see Gazette) by 
Harley in 1707. On the death of the Prince Consort, he lost his 
public employment, and turned to literature as a profession. In 
his weekly paper, the Tatter, published under the pretended editor- 
ship of Isaac Bickerstaff {q.v.) , he created a new literary type, the 
modern essay. The Tatlcr was succeeded by the Spectator, and 
that by the Guardian. All these publications owe much of their 
success to the assistance given to Steele by Addison. The Guardian 
was followed by the Englishman. Steele entered Parliament in 
1713, but was expelled by the Tories for alleged seditious utterances 
in a Whig pamphlet, the Crisis. He returned to political life when 
the Whigs regained power after Anne's death {see Int., p. xxiv), 
and also became manager of Drury Lane Theatre. 

Steenkirks : lace neckcloths, arranged with studious disorder, which 
were worn by the London fops as an emblem of the battle of Steen- 
kirk, in which the noblemen of the French army, surprised by the 
troops of William III., rushed into the fray with their dress in all 
stages of disarray. {See 11 3, and Int., p. xx.) 

Stepney, George (1663-1707) : author of a translation of Juvenal's 
Satires. 

Streatham : a village about five miles southwest of London, where 
Samuel Johnson resided with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale for many years, 
and where Garrick, Reynolds, Burke, etc., were frequent visitors. 

Sunderland, Charles Spencer, Third Earl of (1675-1722) : was the 
son of the second Earl of Sunderland, a leading statesman of the 
Revolution, and son-in-law of the Duke of Marlborough. He was 
an extreme Whig, and was made Secretary of State by Anne dur- 
ing the period of Whig supremacy from 1706 to 1710. {See p. xxii.) 



154 INDEX. 

He returned to office with the Whigs in 17 14. He became first 
• Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, then Lord Privy Seal, then Secretary 
of State, with Addison as his colleague, and finally Lord High 
Treasurer and Prime Minister in 1718. 
Surface, Joseph : a character in Sheridan's School for Scandal, who by 
the profession of extreme virtue entirely deceived his friend, Sir Peter 
Teazle, in regard to his really unscrupulous character. 
Swift, Jonathan, Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin (1667-1745), was cele- 
brated as a churchman, politician, and man of letters. His great 
genius was employed chiefly in a battle against the hard conditions 
of his life, against the dishonesty and selfishness of the society amid 
which he moved, and against the political opponents that he hated. 
He won recognition with his Battle of the Books (a satire on the 
controversy over the Epistles of Phalaris ; see Boyle, Charles), by 
his Tale of a Tub (a satire on the controversies of religious sects), 
and by his practical jest in the Bickerstaff predictions on Partridge, 
the almanac maker. (See Bickerstaff.) 

He became an intimate friend of Harley, and placed all his liter- 
ary powers at the disposal of the Tories after their accession to 
power in 1710. (See p. xxiii.) In their service he edited the Exa??i- 
iner, published numerous partisan pamphlets, and undoubtedly 
contributed much to undermine Marlborough's popularity and 
weaken the war sentiment in England. His only reward was that 
he was given a poor ecclesiastical office in Dublin, far removed from 
all the intellectual companionships in London that he esteemed the 
" ornament of life." In Ireland, as in England, he devoted his ener- 
gies to the righting of public wrongs, and here, too, he composed 
that greatest of satires, Gulliver's Travels, in which he attacks the 
greatest and the meanest vices of mankind in a spirit of bitter indig- 
nation at the degradation which they disclose in mankind. 

In this romance an Englishman named Lemuel Gulliver visits 
many strange regions, among them the flying island of Laputa, a 
country inhabited by a race of philosophers. The natives are so 
strongly inclined to reflection that they would be wholly oblivious 
to the outer world were it not for attendants who recall their 
wandering thoughts by flapping their faces with an inflated bladder. 

It is evident from the above that Swift's habitual temper was a 
scornful one. He was never married, and seems really to have 
loved but one woman, his pupil, Hester Johnson, to whom he wrote 
a series of letters known as the Journal to Stella, containing a 
minute account of his life in London from 1710-1713. These letters 
betray the warmest affection, but for reasons at which the world can 
only guess, Swift never married Stella. Thus, with his social instincts 
ungratified, his ambitions thwarted, his affections starved, he lived 
in constantly failing health for thirty years, until insanity clouded his 



INDEX. 155 

brain, and a lethargy which had for two years held his body inactive 
finally culminated in death. 

Talbot, House of: a noble and renowned English family, dating from 
the time of William the Conqueror. It has given to England a 
series of twenty Dukes of Shrewsbury, many of them conspicuous 
for services tendered to the state. (See Shrewsbury.) 

Tallard : the Marshal of France who commanded the French forces at 
the battle of Blenheim. 

Tangier, the chief seaport of Morocco, was a colonial possession of 
Portugal until 1662, when it was transferred to Charles II. as a part 
of the marriage portion of his bride, Catharine of Braganza. 

Tasso, Bernado (1493-1569), father of the illustrious poet Torquato 
Tasso (see below), was the author of several bombastic, pretentious, 
extravagant poems, both lyric and epic. 

Tasso, Torquato (1544-1595) : the third in the trio of Italian epic poets 
of the first rank. (Dante, fourteenth century; Ariosto, fifteenth cen- 
tury; Tasso, sixteenth century.) His most celebrated works are 
the pastoral poem of Aminta, and the epic "Jerusalem Delivered. 
The latter treats of the victories that marked the " First Crusade for 
the Holy Sepulchre." It was criticised as exhibiting too little his- 
torical accuracy and too little regard for the conventional rules of 
epic composition, and as dwelling too much upon profane matters, 
to the ignoring of the religious side of the crusade. Tasso therefore 
recast it as Jerusalem Captured. 

Temple, Sir William (1628-1699), was early distinguished as a diplo- 
matist and an essayist. In his mastery of style he was a forerunner 
of Addison, being, according to Johnson, the first writer to give 
cadence to English prose. (See Macaulay's Essay on Sir William 
Temple.) One of his essays (On Ancient and Modern Learning) , by 
the attention it called to the Letters of Phalaris, may be said to have 
occasioned the controversy between Bentley and Boyle (<].v.). 

Terence (193-159 B.C.), was one of the chief Latin comic dramatists, an 
imitator of Menander (q.v.), and a capital delineator of the idiosyn- 
crasies of human nature. 

Theocritus (third century B.C.), by the production of his Idylls (i.e. 
Rural Scenes) , became the creator of the type of pastoral poetry. 

Theobald's : the country seat of Lord Burleigh, the leading minister of 
Queen Elizabeth, situated thirteen miles north of London. 

Thrale, Mrs. (1741-1821), was the wife of Henry Thrale, a brewer, and 
an intimate friend of Samuel Johnson. At their home at Streatham 
Place (q.v.) he lived for sixteen years, during which Mrs. Thrale's 
softening influence constantly modified for the better his rather 
rough and crude nature, while her vivacity cheered him in his 
periods of gloom. After her husband's death and her marriage to 
a musiciar named Piozzi, her intimacy with Johnson ceased. 



156 INDEX. 

" Thundering Legion " : this was the twelfth legion of the army of 
Marcus Aurelius in his campaign against the barbarous tribes 
about the Danube in 174 A.D. Eusebius relates that this legion, in 
a battle against the Quadi, was saved from destruction by a thunder 
storm sent by God in direct answer to prayer, which checked the 
onslaughts of the heathen. 

Tickell, Thomas (16S6-1740J : a poet of indifferent abilities, known 
chiefly because of his friendship with Addison. His translation of 
the first book of Iliad was the occasion of Pope's famous outburst 
of spleen against Addison. (See Essay on Addison, H 133 to 136.) 

Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury (1630-1694) : the best preacher 
of his age, and a man of remarkable saintliness of character. 

Townshend, Charles (1674-1738)^ prominent English statesman, was 
a follower of Lord Somers (q.v.) in political matters. He held 
minor offices while the Whigs were in power during the reign of 
Anne, and shared their downfall in 1712, returning to power with 
them under the Hanoverians. He was the first Secretary of State 
under George I., but was dismissed in 1716, when Addison super- 
seded him. (See Int., p. xxv.) After another period of power (1721- 
1730) he retired to private life, leaving to his brother-in-law, Wal- 
pole, the leadership of the Whig party. 

"Universities : the great English universities are composed of a num- 
ber of colleges, each of which constitutes a separately endowed and 
self-governed corporation. A student who is entered at one of the 
colleges becomes thereby a member of the university. The col- 
leges exist for the purpose of giving instruction and furnishing lodg- 
ings and board to students, while the university has the sole power 
of granting degrees. The different colleges acquire a reputation 
for one special line of work, as Magdalene for Latin. 

A college corporation consists of a president, a group of fellows 
(or associated members), and a group of scholars. The fellows 
form a board of government and instruction, having power to elect 
a president and to fill vacancies in their own number by electing 
persons of marked ability and scholarly attainments who have re- 
ceived the degree of Master of Arts. The scholars are persons who 
have not yet attained to that degree, but are supposed to be in line 
of advancement to fellowships. Both fellows and scholars draw 
from the college revenues a fixed annual stipend for their support, 
and the endowments were originally made with the intention of 
providing education and support for students who were to enter 
the service of the church, or to become members of the teaching 
staff of the college. Students who lived at their own expense 
rather than at that of the college were called " Gentlemen Com- 
moners." At Magdalene College provision was originally made 
for a number of demi-scholars, who were to bear half the cost of 



INDEX. i 57 

their board, but later the name Demies came to be applied to the 
entire body of scholars. 

Valerius Flaccus: a mediocre Roman poet of the first century A.D., 
author of an epic poem called the Argonautica. 

Vanbrugh, Sir John (1666-1726) : a writer of brilliant but coarse 
plays. 

Vatican: the residence of the Pope, at Rome, and the largest palace in 
the world. It is an enormous building, containing libraries, picture 
galleries, museums of antiquities and of sculpture. The latter con- 
tain among other noted pieces of sculpture, the Apollo Belvidere 
and the Antinous, probably the most beautiful statues in the world. 

Versailles : The town of Versailles, eleven miles southwest of Paris, 
contains the palace built by King Louis XIV., at a cost of fifty mill- 
ion dollars. During his reign and that of his dissolute successor, 
Louis XV., it was the usual residence of the court. 

Vico (1668-1744) : an Italian philosopher and teacher. In 1697 he 
became Professor of Rhetoric at Naples, and later was made Court 
Historian. He was the first distinctly philosophical historian. 

Vida (1485-1566) : an Italian ecclesiastic, and author of many Latin 
poems characterized by grace and smoothness of movement. 

Virgil (70-19 B.C.): the greatest Latin poet; author of the sEneid, 
one of the few epic poems of the first rank. The reading of this 
and of Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics has always formed part of 
the training of English students of the classics. 

Voltaire (1694-1778), historian, philosopher, dramatist, essayist, was 
the most brilliant of all French men of letters. Living in a time 
of great corruption in Church and State, he devoted much of his 
energy to satires, casting ridicule and odium upon all classes and 
conditions that fell under his disapproval. 

Walcheren : an island at the mouth of the Scheldt. In 1809 a British 
fleet, bearing 41,000 soldiers, was despatched to capture the fortified 
town of Antwerp on the Scheldt, held by 2,000 of Napoleon's sol- 
diers. But the delay of the British commander permitted the 
garrison in Antwerp to be reenforced, and he was ultimately com- 
pelled to abandon the project, leaving 15,000 men to garrison 
Walcheren. After one-half of these had perished as a result of the 
unhealthful climate, the rest were also withdrawn, and the affair 
constitutes a fiasco second to none in military annals. 

Walpole, Horace (1717-1797), son of Robert Walpole {q.v.), not 
only was the author of many light essays, novels, and poems, but 
was also an assiduous writer of letters, of which he left over 2500. 

Walpole, Robert, Lord Orford (1676-1745), was the greatest Whig 
statesman of his time. He was Secretary, first of War, and then of 
the Navy, under Anne, but was disgraced by the triumphant Tories 
in 1712. His power under the Hanoverian monarchs, at first weak, 



158 INDEX. 






rapidly approached absolutism, although lie had such antagonists 
as Bolingbroke and Swift to combat. He was at various times a 
Privy Councillor, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Paymaster General, 
and Lord Treasurer. Finding his influence waning as Pitt forced 
himself into notice, Walpole resigned his offices in 1742, accepted 
a peerage, and retired to private life. 

Walsh, William (1663-1709) : an English political worker and writer 
of amatory verse ; a friend of Dryden and a patron of Pope. 

Warburton, William, Bishop of Gloucester (1698-1779) : an Eng- 
lish clergyman celebrated for his friendship with Pope (who made 
him his literary executor), and for his absurd pretensions to erudi- 
tion and profound philosophy in his published works. His works 
were published by his ardent admirer, Hurd, Bishop of Worcester. 

Warwick : The modern earldom of Warwick was originally held by 
many families of note in England, including the Beauchamps, 
Nevilles, Plantagenets, Dudleys, Riches, and Brookes. 

Westminster Abbey (church) was founded by King Edward the Con- 
fessor, "St. Edward," in 1269, and enlarged by successive mon- 
archs. It is the burial place of thirteen kings (including the 
Stuarts, the later Plantagenets, the first Tudor), and of many poets, 
scholars, and statesmen. The lady chapel, built in honor of King 
Henry VII. by his son Henry VIII., is perhaps the most ornate 
apartment in the cathedral. 

Westmoreland, Lord (1759-1841), an extreme Tory, was a member 
of Pitt's Tory cabinet from 1804 to 1827. By that year the growing 
Whig sentiment had made his retention in office impossible. 

Wharton, Thomas, Marquis of (1640-1714), was a leading Whig 
statesman of the Revolution, a co-worker with Somers, Halifax, and 
Sunderland. Macaulay's strictures upon his personal character 
are unwarrantably severe. His services to the state were not small, 
and his patronage of Addison deserves commendation. 

White Staff: the symbol of the office of Lord High Treasurer. 

Wieland (1733-1813) : a German writer of religious poetry, of ro- 
mances, and of miscellaneous works, all characterized by elegance 
and heauty of treatment. 

Wycherley, William (1640-1715) : one of the most brilliant and most 
corrupt dramatists of the Restoration. 

Young, Edward (1681-1765), author of the celebrated didactic poem, 
Night Thoughts, produced also many other pretentious composi- 
tions, all marred by pomposity and grandiloquence. 

Yucatan, the peninsula of Yucatan, discovered in 1517, contains many 
ruins of prehistoric cities, including temples constructed on such a 
grand scale that they were for many years supposed to prove 
that an elaborate civilization formerly must have prevailed there. 
They are now held to be the ruins of Indian villages. 

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